Life as a pikachu
by PikaCuddle
Summary: Maurice is a boy that loves pikachu. One day Oak asks him for help with some research... In a very special way...
1. Intro

_Hey everyone! I'm writing this story as a prequel to Life of a pikachu. I hope you like it, leave a review!_

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><p><strong>Life as a pikachu<strong>

Hi! I'm Maurice. I'm currently 13 years and I live in Viridian City. Close to Pallet Town. Yep, Pallet Town. That famous Pallet Town. The town of the famous professor Oak and Ash Ketchum... He became quite famous with traveling around the world and fighting in all kind of leagues. I never seen him in real life… I only saw him on television a couple of times...

We are almost the same age. Well, almost… I'm two years older. But that day, five years ago I started my own pokémon journey. I wanted to go on a journey, train pokémon, feel the thrill of battling. I didn't care about pokémon contests. So I went to professor Oak. I know him very well. I work in the local pokémon center and I usually bring pokémon from his lab to the center or other way around. Sometimes pokémon just can't be send over electronically because they're wounded, dead, or just scared to get inside a pokéball. If they're dead, we need to check if there aren't any diseases among the pokémon in the city (or the wild around the city) which can spread and can cause a disaster. Moving them is the worst thing to do. They feel cold as stone when you pick them up. But it needs to happen and I always treat them with proper respect.

I simply love pokémon though. Everytime I'm at Oak's lab and I see all the pokémon in his backyard, I want to investigate stuff. Especially for those yellow electric mouses... Pikachu. I'm completely addicted to them. You see, when I was little my father had a pikachu named Bobby. He got Bobby as a pichu from his parents when he was 5 years old. When I was born, Bobby and I immediately got a special bond (although I didn't realise it when I was one month old). According to my parents, Bobby was always found near me when I was young. As I grew up, Bobby became a sort of third parent for me. When I was unhappy, he always cheered me up. When I was hurt, he would always comfort me. We played all day long. We even slept in the same bed, cuddling all night... We both loved that. But when I was five, my father suddenly forbid me to play with him. Later, I was told dad saw that Bobby had trouble keeping up with me. He behaved differently than normal. About one week later, Bobby peacefully died of old age in my fathers arms. He was 37 years, which is extremely old for a pikachu. We didn't bury him. My father didn't want to lose Bobby forever, so we got him on display now. Although he's dead, it still looks like he's still with us. But back then, I was very sad he was gone. But I also learned a lot of things from him. I can calm pokémon down like no other and therefore I'm very suitable to work with them. I can handle everything you can pick up. Don't bother bringing charizard or blastoise to me: they'll just toast or drown me.

But that day I went to the laboratory of Oak. I wanted to start my own pokémon journey. Even though I wasn't ten but twelve years, he approved and gave me a date I could start. On that date, I went over to the lab and picked bulbasaur. His grandson Gary got a squirtle and another trainer got charmander. Then my journey started. Just as I started my journey to Viridian, a boy in pyjamas ran right past me over to the lab... I just continued walking like nothing happened. I decided to do my first training with bulbasaur. This went perfect and we quickly grew quite close.

But three months later everything had changed. All the things I expected from training pokémon were true, but just... I didn't know... It was exactly like I expected, but it also wasn't. I loved handling pokémon, but not in this way. Bulbasaur and me won most of our battles, but still...

I decided to return to my home in Viridian. I explained bulbasaur everything and gave him the choice to return to Oak's lab and wait for another trainer, or to be released. Not that I didn't want him to stay with me, but I feared he would be bored to death when I did that. In the Viridian Forest I released him, promising him I would visit him regularly. I also told him that he could come and visit me at any time at the pokécenter or my house. Then we parted ways. Other pokémon I caught were also released and I quit being a trainer. I returned to my old work at the pokécenter and I loved it more and more. Yes - working with pokémon one way or another would be what I wanted to do.

Thus, one year later, I was at the lab of professor Oak. We were on a field trip around his backyard to check on some pokémon and to release one I bought from the center. Oak knew I loved pikachu (species) and he always mentioned I could handle pokémon very well. I always laughed at him, but inside I knew he was right. I was good at handling pokémon... But I was using my ability wasn't I? The pokémon in the pokécenter always loved me since I could calm them down, give them a cheer up and do basic medical stuff.

Some days after our field trip, he called me. He had a errand for me. He was wondering if I was interested in doing a research with him regarding a colony of pikachu. Of course at hearing the name "pikachu" I couldn't really resist so the next day I was at his lab looking for what he wanted me to do.

And even though I know Oak can be a strange man, I never expected him to ask me what he asked me on that day...


	2. Into the pride?

_Chapter 2. I hope you guys like it. Please review!_

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><p>I got into the lab. After a little chat, he started about what he wanted to ask me. "My problem is... In the last couple of years, I have developed a great knowledge about pokémon. I know all about them, including pikachu. But knowing about them isn't everything... If you really want to understand pokémon and what they're doing, you have to become one. Unfortunately, that is not possible. At least, not yet." he smiled. "There are some rumours here and there that say scientists have created a potion or machine that transforms you, but all of them didn't work. Anyway, do you watch Discovery Channel?" he asked me. "Yeah, frequently. Mythbusters is one of my favourites." I answered. "Alright, have you ever watched the program "Into the pride"?" he asked me.<p>

I looked at Oak. "Well yes, but I only watched one or two episodes, why?" I had a vague suspicion what he was going to ask me... Would he really do that? Would he really ask me to...? No, that couldn't be possible. That was out of the question. "You see, I think you already know what I want to ask to you, now I said this." he continued. "I want you to..." but I interrupted him. "Are you serious?"

"Do you really want me to go into a colony of pikachu? I mean, it's not that I don't want to or something - but I thought you didn't want to interfere with nature and that you just wanted to do research from a distance... Or to pokémon that are ill or even death... To examine their body structures or to examine how they get their powers and... And..." I stopped. I had no more arguments left. At least, not for now.

"You are right." Oak said. "You're right about all of that - but that's also the problem. As pokémon professor I got fame all over the world and we - I mean pokémon scientists from all over the world - agreed we shouldn't interfere with nature or kill pokémon to study them - OF COURSE you shouldn't kill them!" I interrupted him. He continued like nothing happened. "When we study them, we should respect them and let them life in their natural habitat, or we should examine them when they are caught by trainers. The problem is - some things can't be researched by only watching or by a single pokémon, which makes me come to the point I want to talk with you about." he said while he sat down. "Take a seat."

"You see, I already spent a lot of time looking for the bond between pokémon and human. Trainers are perfect study material, as well as pet pokémon are. I learned a lot and it's very interesting to see. But now, as a pokémon professor, I'm wondering how this goes in the wild. How do wild pikachu life? We know basic stuff. They eat berries, apples, fruit, stuff like that. They like to life in a forest area, they like to live in groups or colonies, and when several gather you could get thunderstorms. But how do they live in groups? We know there's always a leader. Is it the strongest? The smartest? How do pikachu choose their leader? After several studies to several pikachu colonies I found out that the strongest isn't always the leader. It depends on something. But I don't have a clue what. Same goes for females. Which male has the right to mate with a female? We don't have a clue yet. Group policy? What are the rules inside such a colony? The same as us humans? Or are they different? Colony wars? Stuff like that. And that's what I want to ask you." he said while he watched me. "I want you to join a group of pikachu somewhere around here. We have several of colonies around Pallet and they all seem suitable to me. The closest one is about two kilometres from this lab, inside the forest. Join them, or another colony. Try to gain their trust, and then try to find out all that stuff I just asked you."

I remained silent for a while. The plan of joining a group of pikachu... I mean, I love those guys but jeez, joining a colony for real...?

"Why me?" I asked. "Because you can handle pokémon so well. You have a natural talent of doing it. I don't know what you did, got, or do, but they all seem to like you one way or another. Remember that nuzleaf I found recently? He just wouldn't trust me. It was out of the question. Then you came and less than five minutes later everything was fine...!" he said with a semi surprised face.

I smiled. That was certainly true. I calmed down that nuzleaf within five minutes and after that the little guy was released back to the wild. But that was nothing... Was it?

"I don't know..." I said. "I like the idea, but..."

"Look, I'm not forcing you to. If you want to try, but want to quit after 1 day, one week, one month, year, decade, I don't care, you can quit. You can quit at any time, you don't have to stay there if you don't want to." he said. "But I'd love to see you tried." he added quickly and with a smile.

I was thinking... This was actually a pretty good chance to do something with pokémon, something I already wanted since I was a little kid. After being a trainer for a short period, it was even more confirmed, in my opinion. So why not try? That wouldn't hurt. I made my decision.

"I'll do it!" I said to Oak. "Excellent!" he exclaimed and he almost jumped of joy. "Oh, I never thought you'd do it... Alright, I'll do your supplies. Meet me next week here at... Let's say at 13:00 at my lab. Is that good to you?"

I nodded. "Yep, that's fine to me..."

One week later I was at Oak's lab. After a week of thinking, I actually found it pretty cool. This would be the first time someone "really" joined a group of pikachu! At least, as a human. Rumours of people turning into pikachu always exist, but hey, I wouldn't be able to keep them apart from the real pikachu, so what's the deal. I think they would adapt to their new life very quick, if they would even exist. My family responded mixed. My father thought this was a great idea - my mother however was worried sick. I said I could take care of myself, I mean, I just trained pokémon for three months so where should she be worried of? Plus, I would be visiting them every month if I would make it that far.

I stepped into Oak's jeep and we headed towards the forest. After just five minutes or so, he stopped. "Alright, I'm gonna drop you here. There are pikachu around here. I'd say good luck finding a group!" he smiled and drove off.

I saw the jeep driving away. It went smaller and turned a corner and was gone. I was on my own now...


	3. Attacked!

_Chapter 3! I would like to thank BloodStarGeneral for beta reading. Without further ado, let's get started!_

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><p>I got my backpack and sleeping bag and I looked around. So, this would be my home for the next couple of... Weeks? Months? Who knows. At least I could return at any time. I checked the surroundings for any pikachu traces. But I realised lots of pokémon crossed this road and any trace could be from a different pokémon. I decided to just walk straight into the bushes and hope for the best.<p>

Wild pokémon quickly fled when I made my way through the timbering. I had already seen some rattata, beedrill (thank God they left me alone), nidorino, nidorina, oddish and of course metapod and caterpie... I'm sure there are more pokémon out there... But I was looking for only one of them: pikachu. And of course, when you're looking for one, they're nowhere to be found. Not even a glimp. After walking for about two hours, I stopped and checked my surroundings. I had reached the edge of the forest about thirty minutes ago, sighed, turned around, took another angle and hoped for the best again. I got some water out of my backpack and drank. I wondered if there would be a colony of pikachu nearby, but if there was, I should be able to spot at least one of them... Or not? Wild pokémon are masters in hiding themselves. Only big pokémon that don't care if they're seen (or beedrill) don't really hide, because everyone keeps away from them. I got up and continued my journey. Suddenly, the woods went more and more open and I reached a river. It wasn't small, but it wasn't big either. Around it were all kind of stones, most of them polished nice and smooth. I walked to the riverside and wondered how I could have missed this earlier. At least it proved I wasn't walking the exact same route back. I thought that the river might be a good place to spot pikachu, as well as other pokémon.

I walked along the riverside, looking for a place to cross without getting soaked. After ten minutes I saw one in the distance and when I got over there, it was a perfect place to get over. The water wasn't deep, in fact, it was crystal clear and just ten to twenty centimeters deep. The river didn't stream that fast around here and I wondered if this was a good place to spot pokémon. And not even ten seconds after I thought that, I saw my first pikachu coming out of the forest. It was small and it was headed for the river just as I was crossing it, balancing on slippery stones that were above the waterline. He spotted me immediately as I was watching him. He decided I wasn't that much of a threat as long I was crossing the water, so he went to the water and started drinking while I was busy crossing the river as quick as I could. Maybe I could follow him back to his colony! Looking at his tail, it was a male and looking at his size, he wasn't old. Maybe two or three years? I made it to the other side and quickly started walking towards the pikachu. It stopped drinking, watched me coming towards him for a short time, and then turned around and dashed away into the woods. "No, wait!" I shouted, knowing that I could as well shout "Stop catching criminals!" to officer Jenny. I quickly headed for the place the pikachu disappeared into the forest, watched, and sighed. Gone. I smiled. At least I had saw one today, plus, I had a place I could go explore. Hopefully his colony was nearby.

I wandered into the forest again, which wasn't very dense at this place. When I checked the ground, I saw pikachu pawprints on the soft forest bed. Those were clearly fresh and there wasn't just one, but multiple from different sizes. Investigating the ground, I concluded this must be a path they used quite often to get water or to clean themselves in the river. I walked along, checking the ground if I could find a place where they disappeared to the side. After a short walk, I suddenly heard a loud cry coming from nearby. I almost jumped and I looked around quickly to see where it came from. Other than some sounds inside the forest, and the wind, it was silent. I quickly moved in the direction of the sound. When I heard another cry, not as loud as the other one, I could clearly hear it was from a pikachu... I got a bad feeling. I started to run as quickly as I could. It wasn't that fast because of obstacles on the way and the dense forest. "!" I heard just a couple of feet away. I could also hear soft hissing sounds. When I turned around a corner of trees and bushes, I entered a scene that horrified me.

In the middle of a clearing, there was a ekans wrapped around a pikachu. The pikachu cried out again, but it almost couldn't anymore. It was trapped by the ekans, which tried to strangle it. The ekans hissed fiercely at me, wanting me to go away so it could finish its prey off. I looked at the pikachu, which struggled all he could but wasn't able to escape. It was the same male I encountered just ten minutes ago... He looked at me with helpless eyes, not being able to breath, and almost choking. "Pi... Ka..." he said squeaking as almost no air came out of him. The ekans kept hissing dangerously at me and watched me carefully.

I just couldn't stand here, couldn't I...? Or should I let nature... Oh, SCREW nature! I thought. I dashed for the ekans, jumped, grabbed his neck and head with both hands and threw him to the ground using my weight as an advantage. We crashed into the ground with a loud bang. I was sitting on the body of the ekans, my knees on his body and my hands around his neck. The rest of his body was still around the pikachu. I watched the ekans straight into his eyes, and I growled menacingly. "LEAVE HIM ALONE!" I shouted at the ekans, which only tried to struggle free from me. Although I didn't doubt he would win it from me sooner or later, he still had his body curled around the pikachu, which made him unable to battle me. The part of his body which was free and he used to scare away pokémon that wanted to steal his prey, was currently under my knees and in my hands. I released one of my hands and got to my backpack, got it off, and slammed the ekans in the face. I saw thick stick lying next to me, quickly grabbed it with my left hand, while slamming the ekans again with my backpack. Then grabbed the stick with both hands and pushed it against the throat of the ekans, pushing it as hard as I could. The ekans hissed fiercely, but I just made hissing sounds myself, intimidating the ekans as much as I could. He was barely able to breath with my stick on his throat and the ground under him. He uncurled slowly from the pikachu, but it went too slow for me. Holding the stick with one hand, I grabbed my backpack again and slamming it right into his head once more. This made him hiss loudly, before uncurling from the pikachu, which immediately gasped for air desperately. I released the stick from his throat, turned it and slammed it into the ekans multiple times. It hissed loudly, but not as loud as when I first attacked it. I quickly grabbed my backpack, sleeping bag and the pikachu, kicked the ekans one more time with my shoes and ran away from it. After a quick sprint I stopped running and continued walking along the path back to the river.

I turned left when I saw a clearing in the forest which was just perfect. I quickly put down the pikachu against a tree and watched him. He was still completely out of breath and gasping for air and he had two nasty bite wounds. I put down my backpack and sleeping back, sat down next to him and carefully pulled him on my lap. "That was a close call, fella..." I gently whispered to him while gently scratching behind his ears and laying him down on his "good" side. He winced when I did that, still breathing heavily and releasing soft whines. I checked his wounds. Fortunately, I couldn't find any signs of a poisonous bite. I gently turned the pikachu on his back and grabbed my backpack. I knew it had a first aid kit in it, which I hoped not to use. I found it quickly, opened it and grabbed a disinfectant and some bandages. I looked at the pikachu, which watched me carefully. I gently laid my hand on his head. "Are you alright, except from the bite?" I asked him gently. He nodded slowly releasing another squeak when he tried to get up and move away from me. I grabbed him gently with both hands. "Don't be scared of me. I'm not going to hurt you." I told him. Not that he was convinced or anything, but it still worked. He stopped trying to escape while I turned him on his side again getting the disinfectant ready. "Alright, this could hurt, but don't panic, it will help you healing quickly." I said to him while looking in his eyes. I grabbed his front paw and smiled. "If it hurts, squeeze me as hard as you can." I wiped his wounds with some sterile cotton and disinfected them. The pikachu screamed when I did that, but quickly stopped as the feeling got away fast. He gave me an angry glare. I grabbed the bandages and put them around his wounds. He would be just fine... Looking at the distance between the wounds, I could tell this was a ekans bite. The ekans must have attacked him with bite and then tried to struggle him.

I gently pet him when I suddenly I heard rustle in front of me, on the other side of the small clearing. Putting down the bandages and the pikachu, I said him not to move and went over to the bushes to check them... Hoping it wasn't the ekans that wanted to have a second chance, I slowly made my way over to the bushes. I was surprised it was just a rattata, which quickly fled when I came close. I sighed in relief. I walked back to the pikachu, which watched me anxiously.

Just before I reached the him, I heard a loud cry. I looked over to my left just in time to see a pikachu flying at me with incredible speed and a glowing tail. "WHAT THE...!" I could barely say before I was smacked to the ground and landed painfully. After I had recovered from the initial shock I scrambled to my feet and I looked at both pikachu. But instead of looking to only two pikachu, there were suddenly four pikachu in front of me. Two males stood near the little pikachu I just bandaged half and one, a female, was standing before me, growling dangerously. "Hey, what was that for?" I shouted to her.

"Pika! PIKA PIKACHU! Piiii kaaaaaaaaa!" she replied angrily, her tail high in the air and ready to battle." I slowly walked over to her. "Don't attack me, I was helping that pikachu." I said while I slowly made my way back to my backpack. She growled again and wanted me to stop. I didn't stop and that was a mistake. The two other male pikachu quickly joined the female and all three stood before me, sparking their cheeks and growling dangerously. This made me stop. "Alright, I guess you want to protect him from me... Fine, I'll wait until you guys are gone..." I said as I walked backwards, sat in the grass and waited what they would do.

The female slowly stepped backwards, as well as the males. They still watched every move I did, but they turned around and headed for the pikachu. I heard a conversation I could not understand, but it wasn't a nice one. The female asked something to the little pikachu, which clearly didn't know what to say. Then one of the males said something, while the other gave the pikachu a disapproving glance. The pikachu nodded slowly and cringed as the female shouted something to him. He started to cry softly, but the female wasn't done yet. She continued shouting at him and the males joined her. The pikachu wasn't very happy with them and only cried harder and harder. Then I stood up. "Stop it! Do you think he liked being attacked? Do you think he likes being shouted at by you?" I exclaimed while I walked towards them. I stopped in front of them and looked angry. "Stop shouting at him - or - go - a - way".

The three pikachu looked at me angrily. How did I dare to speak to them like that! They all sparked their cheeks and I understood this was serious. The female charged and attacked me with thunderbolt. I felt the electricity flowing through my body and screamed in pain as I fell to the ground, groaning the pain away. I stood up and backed off very slowly, still feeling pain from the shock I had received. The female looked proud and turned around, checking the pikachu over and pulling away the bandages, revealing the wounds the ekans had caused.

She turned around and looked at me furiously. She went over to me and started yelling at me. I watched her with interest, trying to calm myself (and not unimportant, HER) down. I cut her off. "If I didn't save him, he would have died" I said pointing at the pikachu. She stopped when I said that. She watched me angrily but turned around and asked something to the pikachu. He nodded slowly and got ready to receive another scolding from what I think had to be his mother. It didn't last long though, as the mother sighed and started licking him and checking his wounds again. She sniffed them, looked at me, sniffed again and then found the bottle of disinfectant. She asked something at the males and then to her son. The little pikachu said something to her and she looked interested to the bottle. Then she opened it! I got up. "Do not touch that! It can be dangerous if used the wrong wa..." she turned the bottle upside down and dropped the content on the wounds of her son, which immediately cringed and screamed in pain.

I quickly made my way over to the pikachu, grabbed the female at her scruff and scolded at her. "You idiot!" I said while grabbing the little pikachu and holding him upside down. Putting her down, I saw the medicine running out of his wounds. I quickly grabbed some cotton and got as much of the disinfectant from him while I was watched by the two males. The female looked shocked - she had never expected this kind of response from her child and stood near me... The little pikachu looked painfully at his mom and then looked at me. He said a soft "pika pi pika-chu" to me... It sounded like "thank you" and I smiled.

I grabbed his bandages and put them around his wounds, this time finishing it properly. I grabbed him, watched him and put him down before the three pikachu. "There you go!" I said gently. The three pikachu checked the little one out and they all smiled as he showed them he was alright. Should I ask them now...? I could always try. "Ehm... Do you guys have a colony?" I asked nervously." They looked at me, with questionable faces. Then they looked at each other for a short time and then one of the males nodded. "Could I... Perhaps... Come with you? I want to join a colony of pikachu to see how you guys live." I said. They looked at each other again, but then they smiled. One of the males waved his paw and pointed in a direction - probably the location of their nest - and he mentioned to follow him. I grabbed my backpack and sleeping bag and quickly followed the four pikachu while they ran in front of me, back to their home...

_To be continued..._


	4. Accepted?

_Not much action this chapter, working a bit on characters and on Maurice' relationship with the pikachu. Please let me know what you think. If you don't want to review, you can always PM me. :)_

_Friday 13rd (nooooo!) 2012: Updated.  
><em>

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><p>After a short walk, the pikachu stopped. They turned around and the male that mentioned me to follow him raised his paw. I looked at him as the female also said something to her son. He nodded and did not follow his mother as she quickly ran farther into the woods. Both males followed her, but as soon I wanted to follow I was stopped by one of the males.<p>

"Pika Pikachu!" he quickly said waving his paws. "Should I... Wait?" I asked him. He nodded and quickly followed his two conspecifics while I and the small pikachu remained behind. He looked kinda nervous, but he knew I wouldn't do anything to him, so he just watched me. Suddenly I wondered something and I sat down next to the pikachu. "Hey ehm... Ehm... What's your name?" I asked him. "Pika Pikachu!" he replied smiling. I also smiled. "Too bad I can't understand you..." I said sighing. "Anyway, I wanted to ask you something. Why didn't you attack that ekans back there? You could easily do massive damage to it by letting out a thunderbolt or something similar on that range!"

The pikachu looked at me and then shook his head. "Pi ka Pi ka. Pika-pi, pikachu! Pika Pika-ka chu! Pika Pikachu!" he said while sparking his cheeks and covering them with his paws, stopping the sparks. I looked puzzled at him. "What do you mean? Was your attack blocked?" He nodded. "Pika, pikachu! Pika!" he said. He then jumped on my lap, grabbed one of my hands and pushed them against his cheeks. He pointed at my other hand (pika!). I grabbed his other cheek. "Pika! Pika pikachu." he said. Then he sparked his cheeks, making me withdraw my hands quickly. "Don't shock me!" I laughed. He smiled. "Pika, pika pikachu! Pi-pika!" he said while he attempted to grab my hand again. "So you won't hurt me?" I said unsurely. "Pi. Ka." he said firmly while shaking his head. "Alright then..." I grabbed his cheeks again. "Pika pika, pikachu!" he said while pointing at his cheeks. He then sparked and released a small thunderbolt, which I could feel very clearly but didn't hurt that much. "Alright, what was that?" I asked him. "Pika pika..." he said while he pinched me softly in my hands. "Pika pikachu!" he said while looking in my eyes.

"Should I pinch you...?" I asked him in surprise. He nodded quickly. "Ehm, alright them... I guess." I said while gently pinched the little pikachu. He sparked again, trying to release a thunderbolt. Nothing happened. Although he tried and tried - nothing came. I watched the pikachu trying to attack me. I decided to release his cheeks while he was attacking, to see what would happen and if he wasn't fooling me. Once he released a loud "Pikaaaaaa CHUUU" I released his cheeks and on the exact same millisecond I released him I was hit by a thunderbolt. I screamed while electricity went through my body. The pikachu quickly stopped and looked scared at me. "Yeah... No... Problem -I fell to the ground- aaargg." I said while I felt and smelled grass.

"Pika pi...?" I heard him softly. I opened my eyes and saw him standing and looking at me. I could tell he felt guilty. "No problem..." I said. "I just shouldn't have released you... I thought you were fooling me..."

I slowly came back to me senses. I sat up, shook my head and looked at him. "So you can actually block a pikachu's attack by grabbing his cheeks?" I asked him, shaking my head. He nodded. "Pika, pika pikachu." he said while pointing at his cheeks. "Pika... Pika pikachu..." he said slowly while looking at the ground. "So that's why you didn't do a thunderbolt...? The ekans blocked your ability to do electrical attacks?" He nodded. I was thinking. I never knew there was an ability to block electric attacks. At the same time it made perfect sense. Electric attacks from pikachu come from their cheeks. If you block their cheeks, they should be unable to do electric attacks. But even then, don't they have multiple power lines running through their bodies and to their cheeks? I always thought they could release electricity at any time, but apparently they couldn't.

While I was lost in thoughts, the pikachu had made its way to my backpack and was sniffing the outside. I saw him and suddenly realized I was in a forest and that I should contact Oak. I promised him to give him a daily update through a smartphone he had given me. It was in one of the pockets of my backpack. The pikachu however had found it immediately. He was scratching the side of my backpack looking for it, possibly attracted by the battery. I grabbed my backpack and opened the zipper that covered my phone. I took it out (the pikachu followed my phone very interested) together with a piece of paper and unlocked the interface. The pikachu jumped my shoulder to see what I was doing.

"Battery 98% remaining?" I said with disbelief. That's one good battery then... Let's see... I looked to the paper, which was a note from Oak.

_"This is your phone. You can use it to send me messages like daily updates, emergency calls or photos. It has a expensive battery that lasts for ten days and there is a charger on solar energy in your backpack. Please send me daily updates if you're able to. There's also a GPS inside there so I can track you down. Good luck!"_  
><em>- Oak<em>

Alright! I opened the phone and checked what was installed. It was pre-installed and there were some basic operation, like calling, photos, emergency calls, a medical helper and a built-in pokédex. I quickly started typing a message. "Pika pikachu...?" the pikachu asked me. "I'm sending a message to professor Oak." I smiled. "He wanted me to join your colony, and since I like pikachu, I decided to try. I want to see how you guys survive and how your colony works." I said while finishing my message that I possibly found a colony and that I was gonna be introduced to them within a couple of minutes. The pikachu looked at my phone and then stuck his paw out, touching the touch-screen and wiping to the next screen as he saw me doing a couple of seconds ago. I laughed at his face when he did it, because his face looked curiously yet surprised. He stuck his paw out to try again, but this time he forgot he was on my shoulder and tumbled down in my lap. I laughed at him, held the phone in front of him. He immediately was obsessed by the piece of technology. Touching the buttons and entering menus. "They're taking their time, aren't they?" I asked him. "Let's see if there's a game on this thing..."

Unfortunately, there weren't any games on the phone and I put it back in my backpack. "Shouldn't they be back already...?" I said while I gently pet the pokémon. He seemed to like that, as he closed his eyes, purred and snuggled in my lap. If I stopped petting, he would rub his cheek against my hand, clearly not wanting me to stop. I was surprised the pikachu wasn't scared for me at all. At least, not anymore. So this is how quick pokémon can change... I gently scratched under his chin and behind his ears, exactly as I did with Bobby when I was little. He opened his eyes, got himself comfortable on my legs and then slowly drifted away to sleep, his eyes slowly closing as I scratched behind his ears and petting him. He sighed happily, slowly shifted position once more and fell asleep. One minute later, he was fast asleep. I smiled at him and looked him over. His fur was bright yellow and shined brightly. Except from the wounds he had, he was in perfect condition. I looked at his size and felt his weight on my leg. He was probably two or three years old, and had evolved quite quickly after his birth. I doubted if he already had a mate - he was a bit young to have one just yet. Normally they would slowly get one when they were four or five years old.

I looked around the little meadow we were in. I saw the sky, which had turned more and more orange instead of blue. About fifteen minutes after they left, the pikachu came back with four more pikachu. They looked old - older than the one that had brought me over here or that had attacked me. "Hi there..." I said gently. "So you are the colony leaders...?" I asked them. "They said nothing and just watched me. Then the mother appeared. She looked at me, saw her son's tail sticking over my legs and smiled. She moved over to me, jumped on my legs, sniffed him, sniffed me and then sniffed my backpack. She also scratched my backpack at the exact location of the phone. Two other pikachu headed for the female, sniffed, and scratched my backpack, wondering where that electrical magnetic field was coming from. I laughed. "You guys are unbelievable. How do you know my phone is in there?" I said as I opened the pack, got the phone out and showed them. They sniffed the phone, looked at me and got back to the older pikachu which were looking at me, clearly annoyed by the pikachu interested in me.

"Pika - Pika Pikachu!" he said with a heavy voice. I didn't understand what he said, so I just guessed he what he was asking me. "You want to know what I'm doing here?" I asked him. He nodded. "That was easy..." I thought. "I'm here to join a colony of pikachu. I want to research how pikachus live inside a colony and how your colonies work." I said. "Are you the colony leader...?" I added to my answer. The older pikachu looked at me and then slowly nodded. He looked at the other pikachu and they discussed something. "Pika - Pikachu pi-pi-ka. Pika pikachu." he then said. I was thinking what he could have said - but I couldn't figure out what exactly. "You want to know why?" He shook his head. "Pika pikachu pika!"

"You don't want me to join."  
>He shook his head.<br>"You do want me to join."  
>He looked at me with a face that said he hadn't decided yet.<br>"You think it's awkward to have a human in your colony?"  
>He nodded.<p>

"Well I understand that bu..." He stopped me. "Pika Pikachu! Pika!" he said. "More questions?" he nodded.

"You want to know why I chose your colony."  
>He shook his head, stared at a tree for a moment and then nodded. "Pika pikachu!"<p>

"Well, it was luck. I was looking for a pikachu colony in the woods and I saw this one" - I said pointing at the pikachu in my lap - "but he ran off so I followed him and then he was grabbed by an ekans so I attacked the ekans and I took care of him. Then his mother (I pointed at the female) attacked me because she thought I attacked her son and then I asked them if I could join you."

The elder nodded slowly and asked something to the female. The female answered and pointed at her son and asked the elder to come close. They both climbed my lap and checked the bandages from the pikachu. After some discussion with the group of pikachu they decidedThe elder smiled. "Pika pikachu!" he said offering his tail to me. I wondered what he meant but suddenly realized he was greeting me pikachu style. I shook his tail with my hand. He smiled when I did that and pointed at himself. "Pika pikachu. Pika pika pikachu! Pi-pika-chu.". "And I'm Maurice" I said pointing at myself. "Can you tell me his name?" I said pointing at the pikachu in my lap. "Pika Pika Pikachu!". I thought. I understood the first pika. It had to mean "His name is" but the second part was the problem. "Pika pikachu!" one of them said. "Yeah, we should go... It's getting dark." I said. I picked my backpack, put it on and stood up holding the pikachu which was still asleep. His mother jumped on my shoulder to watch me carrying her child. "Alright, let's go!" I said while getting my sleeping bag and following the pikachu to their colony for real this time...

_To be continued..._


	5. Discovered!

_I would like to thank Pichufan for reviewing my chapters and Bloody for betareading! If you have any comments, feel free to review or PM me!_

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><p>I followed the pikachu through the dense forest. With my backpack, sleeping bag and the pikachu in my hands I wasn't able to travel fast, but it didn't really care. After walking for ten minutes we arrived at a very nice clearing. After we descended a small cliff, I was in pikachu territory.<p>

The pikachu stopped and looked around. I was happy the moon was shining, otherwise I wouldn't be able to see a thing. Walking slowly behind the pikachu, I saw some holes. Those must be from their nest... I wondered if they all slept inside or all slept outside at night. Maybe both. We stopped at some kind of burrow, which housed like twenty pikachu. They had dug little holes in the wall, multiple stories high, which they used to sleep in. Some were big enough to house a raichu, some were big enough to house multiple pikachu and some were just big enough for one pikachu. Not all of them housed a pikachu. Most of them were asleep, only one or two were awake and looked at me with big eyes. They saw the pikachu in my arms and his mother on my back and that made them relax a little. The elder then said something to them, which made them go back to sleep. Mother pikachu jumped off my shoulder and jumped in one of the burrows, whispering something. The elder then pointed to the female and then to the pikachu. I gently put him down in the burrow she was in. She immediately started to lick him. I wanted to lay down my sleeping bag, but the elder shook his head and wanted me to follow him. The other pikachu took off to the nest while he bought me over to a spot on a small cliff, behind some bushes with perfect view on the entire colony. "Pika-pikachu." he said. "Pika pikachu, pika pika chu."

"Can't I sleep here?" I whispered. "He shook his head and imitated a pikachu that looked shocked. "Haha, I understand what you mean. I'll try to introduce myself tomorrow..." I said, putting down my stuff and getting ready to sleep. The elder nodded, waved goodbye and took off. "Good night..." I whispered. I got out my sleeping bag and laid it down. Then I grabbed my smartphone, wrote a short message to Oak and got some food from my backpack. I quickly ate it and then wondered what I should do. It was dark, I couldn't see very much. Best thing to do was to get sleeping, so I could do lots of stuff tomorrow. I got into my sleeping bag without even switching clothes. I didn't really care at this moment.

I tried to sleep. Not that I really could - It was just spring and it was about 20:15. Which meant I normally went to bed about two hours later. I am a night person, you know. I don't like getting out of my bed early in the morning. I watched the moon and listened to the sounds around the colony. Every now and then I could hear a rustling. I just turned around in my bag, and closed my eyes and hoped that I would fall asleep soon. After half an hour, I drifted to sleep...

In the distance, I heard a pikachu shouting... But it was far, far away. I wonder if I should check what's happening... Again... A pikachu... But closer and louder this time... How could he move close so quickly...? Rustle sounds... What was happening?

I opened my eyes and sat straight up. I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and looked around, as far as I could, which wasn't very far. It was still night and it was very, very dark. The moon was gone and I couldn't see much except the starry sky. I got up wondering what was happening and looked over the bushes to the colony. There was certainly something going on. Pikachu were coming out of the entrances and made their way over to... Me!

"PIIIIIIKKKKKKKAAAAAAAAA!" I heard loudly near me. I almost jumped when I heard it, because it was really close! I looked around and spotted a pikachu in the trees, his shade contrasted with the sky. "Hey! Don't make so much noise! You're waking everyone up!" I whispered loudly to him. But before I knew it, multiple pikachu reached my sleeping place and surrounded me. More and more pikachu came, all surrounding me and growling. When about twenty of them were around me, I suddenly heard a lower voice. I recognized the elder's voice. He came walking to us and everyone turned around. "Piiika! Pika pikachu! Pikachu! Pika pika pika pikachu! Chu-pika pikachu!" he said with incredible speed. Someone from the crowd asked something, but the elder cut him off. "Pika! Pika pikachu! Chu-pika!" he said angrily. Everyone returned to the colony. Some pikachu watched me for a moment, but then decided they wanted to sleep and returned. The elder watched me and sighed. "Pika pikachu. Pi - Ka." he said and the pikachu in the tree got down and stood before him. "Pika pika pikachu!" he said pointing at me. "Pika pika!".

The elder sighed. "Pikachu pi. Pika Pika-Pikachu." he said while two more pikachu made their way to us. They looked at the pikachu, at the elder and then at me. They also started to discuss with the elder. It was clear the three pikachu that weren't happy with me. They sounded angry and pointed to me multiple times. At last, one of them sighed and turned to me and came over to me. He offered me his tail which I shook. "Pika pi-pi-pikachu!" he said. Again I understood the "My name is" part. But the other part was a riddle to me. He started to talk against me quickly while the other two also introduced themselves. I stopped him quickly. "Sorry, but I don't understand one word you're saying..." I said. "I understood that you introduced yourself and that's about it. What were you discussing about me?" Shit. Now they're gonna tell what and I won't understand a word. The pikachu started a story or something, but one of his mates stopped him. He pointed at me and said something. The other nodded, and then smiled. He said something to the others and looked at me. "Pika!" he said while pointing his finger in the air, as if he was gonna explain me something. He tackled one of his mates gently. After the tackle, he and his other friend held him down and sparked their cheeks. Then, the held pikachu was released and scared away. After he ran off, he quickly returned, pointed at himself and then at me... "So... You wanted to play with me?" I asked questionable. The pikachu stared at me with a "are-you-serious" face and then facepalmed. I smiled. "Alright, you didn't want to play with me!" I said. "Then... You wanted to scare me away." I said. The pikachu nodded happily at me. "Pika pika!" he said while he pointed at himself. "YOU wanted to scare me away!" I said. He nodded again and then pointed at the colony. "Pika pika! Pikachu."

"You called the colony to... Wait, are you guys guards? Do you guard the colony?" Jackpot. All three pikachu nodded and pika'ed at the same time (is pika'ed a word at all?). Then they came close to me and sniffed me. One of them climbed my arms and got on my shoulder. He didn't say anything, but gently licked my neck. He smacked his lips. Did he just taste me? Then he hang to my sweater and also sniffed that. "Pika pika" he said while the other two pikachu replied to him. He got on face height by digging his claws into my sweater and reaching all the way to my mouth and nose with his paws. But I stopped him, grabbed him and held him in front of me. "You could've just asked me..." I smiled. "Pika! Pikachu." he said with a content smile. The other two also climbed me and did the exact same thing. They sniffed me and my clothes and licked me. One also climbed my head and sniffed through my hair and then jumped down. I could feel him jump off as he leaped down my body. "Man, they have such power in their rear legs!" I thought as my head was pushed away when he jumped. I gently put the pikachu down and the other one also jumped from my shoulder.

"But why are you guarding exactly?" I asked. "I mean, the pikachu and pichu (do you have pichu in here? - the pikachu nodded) are all safe underground. Why do you need to guard? One of them sighed. "Pika pikachu." he hissed. "Ah, ekans... those hunt at night, don't they?". They nodded. "So you have to watch for dangerous things and call more pikachu when it gets too dangerous?". They nodded again. "But why alert the whole colony just for me? I'm not that dangerous..." they smiled and looked at each other. "You think different about that. Alright." I said smiling. "Nevermind. I will try to not scare you guys. You can take me out with one thundershock, so what are you worried about..." I said softly. They smiled at me again.

"Well, I'm back to bed..." I yawned. "Gonna be a busy day tomorrow for me. I have to meet a entire colony of pikachu and try to convince them I'm not a big bad guy that tries to hurt or catch them... Wish me luck." I said while smiling. "Which one of you has to guard tonight?". One of them raised his paw. "Alright. If you find a ekans that has my smell on it, wake me. That idiot tried to kill one of yours." I said while I got in my sleeping bag. The two pikachu left the scene, saying goodbye to the remaining pikachu. He walked over to me and asked me something. "I saved him. You'll see tomorrow who it is. I don't know his name yet." I said. "I need to learn all your names... Ehm... He was kinda small, not fully grown yet, I guess about three years old and he got a very fierce but gentle mom. Although she gave him a good scolding when she found him..." I said while smiling.

The pikachu laughed. "Pika pikachu!" he said. I looked at him. "You know who that is?" I asked. "Pika pika-chu..." he said in a tone that sounded extremely similar to "that can only be one...". I smiled at him and gently stroked him across his head. He smiled and purred softly. "Alright, have a good night..." I said as he returned to his work. He jumped the tree he was in when he called for the colony and remained there, checking for potential danger.

I went back to sleep to see what the morning would bring...


	6. Troubles

_Chapter 6! I decided to change my writing style to a (in my eyes) better one. Please PM or review if you like / dislike it! And have fun with part 6. Hope you like it!_

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><p>It was morning. I felt something on my cheek... I opened my eyes and saw the wounded pikachu from yesterday. He was tapping my cheeks and he looked at me very happily as soon I opened my eyes.<p>

"Pika!" he said happily when I sat right up and got the sleep out of my eyes.

"Good morning... Ehm... Ehm... I don't know your name yet." I replied. He smiled at me while I got out of my sleeping bag and got my shoes on.

"So, how are we feeling today?" I asked him. He smiled again.

"Pika pikachu! Pika pikachu-pika-pi!" he said while jumping up and down a bit. Then he pointed to the colony. "Pika pikachu!"

"Yeah, I'll introduce myself shortly." I said while I looked to the colony. It was busy down there. Pikachu were getting in and out of the entrance and took stuff in and out, including berries, fruit, leaves, you name it. "Alright, come here..." I said. The pikachu moved closer as I picked it from the ground and held it in one arm while I used my other to check his bandages. He tried to sniff my fingers when I was busy.

"Your wounds look great. I think they'll heal very quickly. You just need to wear those bandages just one more day. I'll remove them tomorrow." I said while putting them back in place. He smiled at me and then rubbed his head against my hand while he released soft chu's. I laughed and stroked him behind his ears. He purred softly and rubbed against me once more, his eyes closed as he enjoyed the attention.

"If I was a pikachu, I would also enjoy that..." I said while I gently wiggled my fingers under his chin. "At least, I think. I don't know how it feels..." I said while I stopped. "I still need to know your name, don't I? It's so annoying that I have to call you "pikachu" every time." I said.

He looked smiling at me. "Pika pikachu!" he said.

"Yeah, your name is... I understand that. But your actual name I cannot understand..." I said.

"Pika..." he said while his ears dripped a bit.

"Hey, don't get sad. I'm sure I'll find out somehow. Is your name Maurice?" I asked him. He shook his head.

"Awwww, too bad!" I said laughing. He smiled.

I put him down. "Alright, can you show me around?" I asked him.

"Pikachu-pi! Pika pikachu." he said and mentioned me to follow him. He went through the bushes, into the clearing. Other pikachu could also see me now, and some of them stopped in their tracks. They watched me anxiously, when suddenly the guard from last night greeted me. He came up running from the sleeping holes where I left the pikachu and its mother yesterday.

"Pika pikachu? Pika!" he said.

"I don't know what you're saying, but yes, I slept very well...?" I said slowly.

"Pika!" he said nodding. "Pika pikachu. Pika pika." he said while mentioning me to follow. I looked at the little pikachu, which followed the guard. He looked back at me and mentioned me to hurry. He was certainly energetic and enthusiastic about me! Maybe because I saved his life, or maybe because we just liked each other.

We came at a clearing with low grass. A lot of pikachu had gathered there and the guard went straight for it. I got a little nervous. A lot of pikachu also meant a lot of chances to get shocked. And I didn't really like that, since I had to experience it twice yesterday. I stopped. I was nearby the clearing, but still out of reach of the pikachu. The small pikachu turned and saw I stopped. He came over to me to check what was wrong, and as soon he got near me he jumped my shoulder. He could feel that I was nervous. I knew he knew, because bulbasaur always noticed when I had something on my mind when I was still training him.

"Pika pikachu." he said soft and gently. He pointed at the group of pikachu. "Pika. Pikachu-pi!"

"Yeah, I'm nervous... I know... But since I got shocked twice yesterday I don't want to be in the middle... They could panic and shock me."

"Pika. Pikachu-pi." he said and shook his head.

"Really? They won't?"

He shook his head again. "Pika. Pikachu-pika." His last sentence sounded very convinced and I moved on. The pikachu looked at me. The little one jumped from my shoulder and walked before me and stopped. He said something to the group and suddenly the group was rather interested in me than scared. Some of them looked curiously at me, others still looked anxiously. The guard in the middle then said something, which made them even more interested. Then the little one continued his what-had-to-be a little story and then pointed one arm at me while saying "Pika!".

Everyone looked at me. It was just a scene from a comic movie. "Ehm... Hi?" I said to them. They all started to talk through and with each other and the little pikachu mentioned me to follow him to the center of the group. I sat down and some pikachu came close to check me out. I felt a little uncomfortable, but they were all very friendly to me. I stroked some of them, but some flinched when I attempted to. As soon they understood I wasn't hurting them they allowed me to stroke them and most of them loved it. The little pikachu also was the center of the attention, which he seemed to like. Some of the bigger pikachu were talking to him and pointing at me. He seemed to be very happy with them and jumped up and down every now and then like he was showing them something.

After a while, about all pikachu were checking me out. It feels kinda funny to have four pikachu in your lap, two on your shoulders, some at your back and some at your head checking you all over. Most of them decided I wasn't that scary and offered me their tail. Some even offered their hands at me after seeing me shaking the tails with my hands. I smiled at them.

"Oh yeah, my name's Maurice. Or did he (I pointed at the small pikachu) already tell you?"

Some nodded at me. "You guys look very nice... I hope I'm not that scary." I said with a smile. Some of them smiled at me and started to talk, but due to others talking through it I could not understand one single word of it. "And I wish I could understand you!" I quickly added. Some of them smiled at me.

They were all young pikachu. Looking at the little pikachu and their interaction, they all must be about his age. He was talking to some of them and it looked like a heavy discussion. They had forgotten me completely although the discussion was about me, looking at the amount of pointing they did at me. They didn't notice I was looking at them.

"Pika pika ...make him understand anyway?" the little pikachu said while looking at me.

"Well, he is a human. He can learn other languages. Remember that research guy we had here once? I couldn't make anything of him! He said he was from... Branch or something. When he talked normal at least."

"France?" I said without thinking, busy stroking and examining multiple pikachu that were still over me.

"Oh yeah, that was it. France. Anyway, I couldn't understand him in his own language. " the big pikachu continued. "Think about that. That's what he hears all the time." he said pointing at me. "Something like that. But if he's able to learn other languages, he also could learn ours. But that'll take time."

The little pikachu sighed. "Alright... I'll try. But don't think I can do this alone... I need to learn him everything!" he said. He smiled again and then turned to me. "Too bad you cannot understand us." he said smiling. I turned to him.

"But I can understand you per..." My voice stopped when reality suddenly hit me. But I could understand them! "...fectly..." I said completing my last sentence staring at a tree. I looked around me. All kind of daily talk surrounded me. Pikachu were discussing what they were gonna do today, that they were hungry or what I was good for.

"Maybe he can chase away those snakes!" a female said behind me.

"Like he saved Lukas!" a male said.

"Or those raichu... I don't dare to go out of the nest on my own anymore!" she continued.

"Or maybe he can take care of the pichu? He seems to handle pokémon quite well for a human." another female said.

I turned my head to the little pikachu, apparently named Lukas. "Is your name Lukas?" I quickly asked him. "He stared at me for a moment and then nodded quickly. "Yes! Yes! My name is Lukas!" he said jumping up and down. He looked happier than ever. "How'd you know?"

"I don't know how, but I can suddenly understand you!" I said. "Very, very strange..."

"Not really, I'm using telepathy on you. That's why you're able to understand them." I heard a voice saying. I looked around and saw a beautiful Espeon walking towards us.

"Oh hi Espeon!" Lukas said. "I didn't see you! How are you?"

"I'm fine, thank you!" she happily said looking at me. "I wanted to show myself earlier, but I wanted to know for sure this human was trustable." she said looking at me and walking around me. "Your face was priceless once you realised you actually were able to understand them." she said, smiling at me. "You really gave me a good laugh!"

"Um... Well, no thanks... I guess... I really was amazed when I suddenly realized I was understanding what Lukas said." I said while looking at Lukas and Espeon.

"Espeon is also part of our colony. She helps us keeping track of the raichu around here, as well as the ekans." Lukas said.

"Why?"

"Urg... That's a long story." Lukas said. "Espeon, do you have time to translate everything?" he asked.

"Sure. But what is he doing here anyway? I thought you guys didn't trust humans since that poacher almost killed some of you?" she replied.

"Poacher?" I replied shocked. "Are there poachers around here?"

"Yes." Lukas sighed. "According to mom, they started coming long before I was born, and about ten days ago, there was one wandering around our colony. We all hid within the nest, but one of our friends came back from the river. He didn't know there was danger and he started calling out for us. Then he..." tears formed in his eyes. "He was shot... There was nothing we could do..." He sobbed.

Most of the pikachu were gone by now, and I grabbed Lukas and gently pulled him into my lap. I stroked gently over his head.

"That's horrible..." I said.

"Tim was still alive when they caught him... They killed him right in front of us. It was..." he sobbed again. I gently stroked his head once more and stopped him. "You don't have to tell me..." I said.

"They even killed my bro..." he stopped, swallowed, and continued. "They even killed my brother when I was young. Irwin was caught in a trap... He was killed immediately according to dad... So he didn't have to suffer anything..." he said.

Dang. Such a little pikachu and so much misery. And he probably wasn't the only one.

"Hunting on wild pokémon is strictly prohibited. If you can catch this guy, I'll deliver him to the police. Maybe I can do anything..." I said.

"What's police?" Lukas said interested, wiping his eyes clean.

"Police is... Ehm... People that work at the police force try to catch people that do bad things." I told him in children language. "Like hunting on you guys or hurting people or pokémon."

"But you need to catch him first." said Espeon. "And that's not easy. They got guns. The first time they came here, we tried to stop them by attacking. But they just shot at us. Some of the pikachu here barely escaped that day. It was terrible."

"Jeez... And I thought being a wild pokémon would be easy." I said.

"As long you got a colony, it is." Lukas said. "If you're alone, then it's hard..."

"How do you know?" I asked.

"I once got lost and had to sleep out of the colony. Very scary when you know you could be caught any second by a hungry noctowl."

"But you survived." I smiled.

"I didn't sleep that night. I was young and scared."

"You're still young." I replied. You're only three years old!"

Lukas smiled at me. "Trust me, when you are younger, you don't feel safe without mom or dad to save you. Now I can scare them away myself, but when you're younger, you cannot control your attacks like I can now." he said. "And, when you're just evolved into a pikachu, you're still getting used to your power."

"I understand..." I said. "Now, explain me about the ekans. Does this go about that ekans I saved you from?"

"Yes..." Lukas said. "And I still owe you a thank you." he said while hugging me tight. "Thanks... You really saved my life back there."

"No thanks..." I said gently while stroking his back. He purred softly and rubbed his cheek against my belly. I smiled.

"You guys are so adorable when you do that." I said.

"I'm not adorable!" he said annoyed (Espeon chuckled).

"Yes you are." I said while I scratched behind his ears. He immediately purred loudly.

"See? Now, tell me." I said while I got myself comfortable, wondering what those ekans could possibly do against a entire colony of pikachu.

To be continued...


	7. Problems

_Hi everyone. I decided to show the problems this pikachu colony faces in a chapter. It has a bit serious tone, you'll see it when you read it. Without further ado, let's go. The pichu will be introduced in the next or oncomming chapter (I recieved a couple of mails asking for them).  
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><p>"Alright, it started about a year ago." Lukas started, "We went to visit another colony. It was a nice day and when we returned, there were ekans and arboks investing this place!" he said while pointing around him. "They had taken over our nest and used it as a nest for themselves. They could enter by the entrances we had made. When we came back, they had claimed the nest as their own and tried to take it over.<p>

The pichu weren't with us that day. They were playing outside with the babysitters. Then they were spotted by those ekans and arboks, which tried to attack and eat them. Luckily, they were stopped by the babysitters, which got everyone inside the nest and tried to block the entrance. But that didn't work because they found the other entrances and attacked everyone that was inside. They tried to block them, but nothing seemed to work. The pikachu entrenched themselves with the pichu inside the pichu room, which has only one exit. Then they waited until we came back.

When we came back, they were under attack. The ekans and arbok tried to get past those guards to eat the pichu. But time after time they were stopped by those babysitters which did a great job. Then all pikachu from our colony launched a full attack to wipe those snakes out of our home. That worked quite well, but they didn't give up that easily. They also entrenched themselves somewhere in our colony. After a very long battle we succeeded to get them out..."

"Alright, you got them out. But what's your point?" I asked him.

"Well, when they left, they weren't exactly happy about it. They wanted to stay here, because this is a very nice place. It's perfect for little pokémon. They could easily ambush pokémon in this place, which means they never had to look for food again. When they left, they all said they would come back to fight us and they would kill us..." he said. "And since then they terrorise this part of the forest. They want to scare us away from here."

"So they're trying to get you out of here? That's all?" I asked.

"Not only that, they attack pikachu that go outside this colony." Espeon said. "They patrol around here and try to catch anything that's going outside this safe area. They are guarding us. And the ekans you saved Lukas from, was one of them. He had followed Lukas and had ambushed him on his way back." she said.

"And I think they aren't very happy about that." Lukas said. "You may not know, but the guards already..."

"Are you talking about me?" said a pikachu that walked over to us. It was the guard that "caught" me last night and that brought me over here. "Maurice, I was just looking for you. Can you come with me?" he said while waving his paws like I couldn't understand him.

"I can understand you now, thanks to Espeon." I smiled. "No gestures needed as long she's with me!"

"Ah, that's great..." he said. "Remember me?"

"Of course, you just caught me last night and you brought me over here about thirty minutes ago! Why would I forget you already?" I said.

"Just checking. Humans seem to have trouble to distinguish us from each other." he said while he looked at me. "Oh by the way, I'm Volt. But everyone calls me Guardie because I'm one of the main guards of the colony. Nice to talk to you!" he said while jumping on my shoulder and smiled. "I'd love to talk a bit more, but the pikachu are waiting for you. They are all dying to meet you."

"But I just met the pikachu, didn't I?" I questioned. I looked at the three pokémon before Lukas, Espeon and Volt all laughed at me.

"You just met the pikachu of Lukas' age." Volt said. "Lukas told them that you were awesome and that you saved him, so they all wanted to see and meet you." I looked at Lukas. He blushed heavily when I looked at him. "Lukas asked me if he could introduce you to them first. What you have seen was just a small part of our colony!" he said.

"That's great, more pikachu to meet!" I said. "Last time went kinda good I guess..."

"To make a long story short, they loved you. Although we always learn the pichu to not trust humans, you got something that made them love you. I guess you did something incredibly well." he said. "And that includes saving Lukas!" he said smiling.

"I was just telling him about that group of ekans..." Lukas said.

"Oh... Yeah, those guys aren't making our lives easier. They attack anyone that wanders out of the colony..." he said while letting out a sigh. "And then those raichu..."

"What's with the raichu?" I asked.

He sighed. "Nothing good, I'm afraid."

"Those raichu are the reason I'm in this colony." Espeon said. "They are wandering around the forest, looking for victims. They try to mate them, including other pokémon species."

"Mate? You mean rape." I said while looking at Espeon. Volt jumped down and stood next to Espeon.

"Yes, rape." Volt said. "You should know that living in a colony like this brings some rules. And one of those rules is that you don't mate with random strangers or males -or females- from other colonies." he said. "A while back, suddenly three females got banished for that. They all had strange smells on them and they didn't want to say what they had done or where those scents came from.

"But one strange scent doesn't immediately mean a female has... Well... Mated another male, doesn't it?" I asked.

Volt hesitated, but gave me a serious glance. "Sperm." he said. "She smelled like sperm. It's the strongest smell we know and you can immediately tell which male mated which female. And they all smelled like two strange males. Two! You can understand that we got mad on them and demanded them to tell us what happened. But they didn't want to tell us which made us decide to banish them."

"After a week or so, one female was raped by one of those raichu. She had the same smell of the other three that were banished but she actually told us what happened. Then we understood what really happened. The raichu only take single victims and apparently work together to rape them. We still don't know who they are and what they want, but they are a serious problem. We never actually caught them in the act... Most of us never saw them for real. But several pikachu have said that there were raichu around the colony looking for chu's."

"That's just gross... How can raichu do such things? Are they also banished? Or maybe lonely?"

"Well we don't know and we don't wanna know." Volt said. But the thing is, they are dangerous. I don't know how they will react to humans, so watch your step if you're going outside. Not only for them, but also for those..." he stopped. He jumped back on my shoulder and looked the other way. "...snakes." he finished. He sniffed the air. At the exact same time Lukas pricked up his ears and Espeon looked around.

"You heard that?" Espeon said.

"Yes..." said Volt. "We're being watched."

I quickly grabbed Lukas and put him on my other shoulder and stood up and turned to the place Volt was looking at (Volt also turned around). I listened closely. Besides some colony sounds in the distance I heard nothing. Suddenly I saw something... Purple.

"There..." I whispered to Volt. "Just left of that hill. Ekans or arbok, one of both." I said.

"I see him..." Volt said. "I'm right back..."

I sat down again looking at the ekans. He clearly knew he was seen, because he didn't attempt to hide anymore. His location was behind a big rock. The only ones that could see him were me, Lukas and Espeon and probably Volt. We didn't know what he was doing, but I was sure he was planning something.

"This happens every day. At least once or twice." Lukas said. "They always try to attack us like this. That's why we have those guards out. Good thing he didn't try a bit further, because Volt is guarding right now... He wouldn't have noticed."

"Oh, don't worry. He or someone else would have." Espeon said. "They aren't very good at sneaking up onto us. Too noisy."

"Noisy? But I didn't hear anything." I said.

"But we did." Lukas smiled. "Dang, I wish I had pikachu-ears..." I said.

"Be careful what you wish..." Espeon said. "Sometimes it might come true!" she laughed.

"Hah, I don't think I'll ever turn into a pikachu. All those magical stories out there that say people turn into one or another pokémon are just rubbish. I don't believe that. I can adapt to your lifes, but I can't really change into one of you, unfortunately... Sometimes I wish I could." I added.

"Yeah... Sometimes I wish I was a human. Playing boss on pokémon, having all those nice things like that... What is it? You called it 'bone' or something?" Lukas said. Espeon chuckled.

"A phone, silly. That's what people use to communicate over long distance." she said.

"You've been a trainer's pokémon once? You seem to know quite a lot about us..." I said to her.

"Well both yes and no..." she said. "I've been from someone but it was only temporarily. I had been fighting with a trainer and I had won the battle barely. I was still a eevee back then. I had fled through the forest when I suddenly met a guy which also challenged me for a fight. But after one tackle, I already fainted. He then caught me, but he released me when he had healed me up. He said he didn't like unfair catches and he challenged me again. I won that battle and he let me go."

"So there are nice trainers out there after all." I thought.

"Yep, there are..." Espeon said.

"Excuse me? Can you hear my thoughts?" I said.

She chuckled. "I'm using telepathy. What do you expect?" she smiled. "But I noticed that more and more trainers are bad to their pokémon. They just want to battle, battle and battle more. I don't like that attitude. So I decided to just evade trainers all I can... Until I almost got caught by those raichu. Then one of colony members saved me. I am still really grateful about that. I'm also glad they adopted me so easily..."

"So I'm not the only awkward person... Ehm... Creature in this colony." I smiled.

"Look at the ekans..." Lukas said smiling. I looked and saw Volt. He had sneaked up at the back of the ekans, which didn't suspect a thing. I saw his tail glowing bright white.

"Someone's gonna get hurt..." I said while Volt took a jump and smashed into the ekans. It quickly retreated back to the forest while we laughed. "They're so stupid." Lukas said. "What do they expect...? That we'll just leave them there?"

"Maybe..." I said while Volt returned.

"That's one problem solved!" he said happily. "Maurice, you really should come with me. I promised them I would bring you quickly..."

"Alright then, let's go. Lukas, you coming with me?"

"Sure!" he said while jumping my shoulder.

"Espeon, could you be translator?" I asked.

"Sure! I wonder what you're gonna do when I'm gone."

"Learn pika-language. But I guess that'll take a long time..."

"I'm sure it will." Lukas said.

"Let's see what those elderly pika's think of me..." I said while I followed Volt to the center of the field...

_To be continued..._


	8. Time

_Hello everyone, here's part 8! I got a bit taken away by the time thingy... I was writing it and before I knew it I was two pages further than I thought. After reviewing it I thought it might be funny to leave it in. Anyway, enjoy part 8. Not alot of action, but I promise the next parts will have more stuff happening._

_BloodyStarGeneral: Get well soon!  
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_Pichufan: Thanks for beta-reading!  
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_If you got any comments, requests, or additions you think fit perfectly, do not hesitate to PM me! I like to hear the opinion of others about pika-related stuff. :P  
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_Alright, enough chat! Let's get part 8 started. Enjoy!  
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><p>While we moved towards the center of the open field the pikachu lived in, I was wondering something. Although I loved that I was accepted to this colony so quickly, and the fact that everyone seemed to like me (I know I was good at handling pokémon, but I never expected THIS to happen) they were still wild pokémon. Weren't they scared of me? Scared I would hurt them or catch them inside a pokéball? I had some in my backpack in case of emergencies, but I was hoping I didn't have to use them. Suddenly I heard Espeon's voice inside my head.<p>

"It's because we know you're good hearted." I stopped and looked at Espeon.

"What do you exactly mean by that?" I asked. Lukas looked at me.

"What do I mean by what?" he asked. Espeon chuckled.

"I'm having a telepathic conversation with Maurice. Very interesting to see how he thinks." she chuckled.

"Ah, ok. So he was thinking aloud just now." Lukas said.

"Yup... I was wondering why... Maybe a good question for you." I said. "Why do you like me so much? Don't get me wrong..." I added quickly, "but I only know you for one day and you already are riding my shoulder like you know me forever. I did save you, yes, but aren't you scared at all for humans? For me? That's what bothering me." I said. "I don't dislike it though, yet I have to get used to the fact I'm accepted so quickly. I suspected it would take at least a month or so."

Lukas looked at me. "What's a month?"

"Maybe I should start using child language for Lukas..." I thought. Espeon chuckled loudly.

"A month is 30 days." I said. "You know what 'time' is?"

"Time? I heard of it... I mean..." he stared to nothing in particular. "I don't know really... I know that when I'm hungry it's TIME to eat... And when it's time you're gonna do something... If the sun rises it's time to get up!" he added with a smile.

"Interesting to know how you pikachu think about that... Shall I explain human time? You probably won't understand it, but maybe you will." I said.

"Sounds cool, explain me!" Lukas said.

"Yeah, maybe I'll now understand those numbers I see at human places. I visit the nearby town regularly and every time (Hey! I said time!) I see those numbers... Humans somehow manage to do stuff at certain times of day when those numbers point to the exact same point as yesterday."

"You said times a day." I chuckled. "Alright... Hold on, because this can get complicated."

"To understand time, you need to understand how we determine it. In space you got a solar system." I said pointing at the sun. "The sun is the center of our solar system."

"What's a... Sun? You mean the ball of light?" Lukas asked while looking at my finger. I stopped for a moment.

"You don't know what... Whatever, yes, the ball of light is the sun." I said. "Maybe you should call it sun from now on... That's really basic knowledge! Even for a pikachu!"

"Young pikachu know the word sun, but mostly refer to it by 'ball of light'" Espeon said. "For them that's easier."

"Alright... Hmmm... I'll just continue." I said. "The earth is going around the sun with incredible speed..."

"Earth? What on... earth... is earth...?" Lukas said, knowing that he knew what it was but also didn't.

"This is earth. The planet we're standing on. It's a planet in our solar system (don't ask, that's even more complicated) and it's called earth. Basically a big round ball we live on." I said. Lukas blinked with his eyes a couple of times.

"Alright..." he said slowly.

The earth also turns. You can notice that when you look at the sun. In the morning it comes up there (I pointed to the east) and goes down there (I pointed at the west). If you look carefully, at different TIMES it is on a different spot. It moves."

"The earth takes 365 DAYS to move around the sun. That's what we call a year. In easy words: The time between the start of the winter and the start of the next winter." Lukas looked at me and stared at me.

"So the earth... Moves... Around the sun... But what's a day then? I know a day is like... Today... But what's a day for you?" he asked.

"A day is the time between when the sun comes up one day and comes up the next day. Like it came up today and it will tomorrow. The time between that is one day."

"So when the sun comes up tomorrow, it's the next day?" Lukas said.

"Exactly!" I said. Espeon chuckled. "It sounds incredibly complicated."

"If you don't understand it, it is." I laughed.

"Alright. As I said, the earth takes one year to go around the sun. A year consists of months. A year has twelve months with the days equally spread... Well, not entirely equal, but spread among twelve months. A month has days like this one. We divide days by hours, minutes and seconds. And those hours, minutes and seconds are what you guys see on those numbers..." I said while getting my smartphone out of my pocket.

"Check this out." I said while I chose "time configuration" and the local time appeared on screen. Espeon and Lukas both watched with interest.

"These are milliseconds." I said while pointing at a rapidly changing number. "These are seconds, these are minutes and these are hours. One day has twenty four hours. After twenty three it moves back to zero and then one day has passed.

Lukas looked at the numbers. Espeon did the same. They were totally obsessed by the milliseconds counter which went very quickly as usual.

"And that's about it for human time..." I said... "Those are the basics..."

"So... Time... Has something to do with... Arrg... It's too complicated!" Lukas exclaimed.

"No it's not when you understand it." I said. "But I can understand its complicated for you guys."

"So those human marks are seconds..." Lukas said while looking at my phone again.

"Milliseconds, seconds, minutes and hours." I said while pointing at the screen.

"They look... Fascinating..." Lukas said with a almost hypnotic voice, while looking at the milliseconds again.

"They indeed d..." Espeon said before she was cut off.

"HEY!" Volt shouted. "If you're done talking and watching that human thing, will you finally come with me? I'm waiting for hours!"

"You're not! You're waiting only several months!" Lukas shouted back.

"Ehm Lukas, you mean minutes." Espeon said as I laughed.

"You guys are so funny. I really should explain you more human stuff and see what you make of it. It'll be hilarious." I said while putting away my phone and walking towards Volt.

"You know, you still didn't answer my question, Lukas." I said. "Why do you like me so much?"

"Well, just because... I like you." he said. "I don't really know, but ever since you said you wouldn't hurt me I believed you. When someone is up to something bad, I can feel it, and I felt it before. I once met a smaller human inside another forest clearing. They were eating food so I was curious what they were eating when suddenly a kid ran up to me and almost grabbed me. He also said he wouldn't hurt me but something inside me told me I shouldn't trust him, so I ran away. When I met you the first feeling I got was some kind of... I dunno... Safe feeling... I could sense that you weren't here to do something bad to me... It's just... I don't know... But I like you. You are very interesting and you have nice stuff... Your smell is also nice... I don't know what I like about it, but I like it... I can just feel you are nice."

"Hey, same for me about that scent." Espeon said. "I also like your scent. It's nice, but I don't know why."

"So pokémon can indeed feel or smell if someone is good hearted..." I said.

"Told you." Espeon said chuckling.

We arrived at the "main" entrance of the pikachu nest. It was in some kind of burrow in the ground and the entrance was down so it wouldn't really stand in the clearing. Behind the little hill that led to the entrance, there were lots of pikachu standing, waiting for me.

"You know, this really is like the way humans do this... Introduce someone before an entire departement of people... Maybe we're more alike than we think!" I said while looking at all the pikachu, which all looked back at me.

"Are you serious?" Lukas said. "Some things you just do with your entire colony. Accepting new members, for instance. Everyone has to meet the new member so we all know it isn't someone from another colony or just a random pikachu." he said. "Its just... Something you do with your family." he added.

"Ah, alright then... So that's why I'm meeting you in groups?" I asked.

"Well, I just wanted to show you to my friends...I thought they'd found that cool..." Lukas said slowly while putting his paw behind his head. I smiled.

"Hey, no problem. I liked it. I didn't know your colony existed of so many pikachu... I thought you had less... Do you have any raichu at all?" I asked.

"No, we don't have raichu. The raichu that we had left our colony because they couldn't play boss over us. After they tried to kill our leader, we expelled them."

"Wow... So they wanted to kill him?" I asked.

"Yep. That's why they're gone." Lukas said. We walked up to the clearing and saw a crowd of pikachu.

"So this are all pikachu in this colony...? Wow..."

"Yup!" Lukas said. "This is our colony. I don't see the pichu around though... Probably too early for them to come out. There are some pikachu with the pichu, those are missing. But this is our entire colony!"

"It's huge..." I said. There must be at least sixty pikachu standing around here. A pikachu walked up to me.

"Lukas, come down please and join the colony." he said. "I heard Espeon translates for you?" he asked.

"Yes, please let her stay so I can understand you." I asked.

"Of course" he smiled. "It makes things a lot easier."

He turned around and started speaking to the crowd.

"Everyone, meet... Ehm..." he gasped. "What's your name again...?" he asked me.

"It's Maurice."

"Yeah, Maurice. Thanks. Alright everyone, meet Maurice the human! You don't have to be scared of him, he won't hurt you." he added quickly. The crowd quickly started to talk to each other. I could hear some pikachu at the front.

"Are they kidding?"

"I thought they were joking when they said a human would join us..."

"I wonder if we can trust this guy..."

"He looks nice to me..."

The pikachu that announced me raised his paw and everyone became silent. Apparently he was in charge, but it wasn't the elder that I had met before. Just when it was silent, a pikachu screamed over the crowd.

"Why are we adopting a human?" he shouted. Immediately there was uproar. Multiple pikachu agreed, while others didn't really know what to answer. It was kinda strange to see.

"Did he save Lukas?" one asked. Slowly everyone looked at me and got silent.

"What did he do?"

"Save him? What?"

The pikachu sighed. "Yes, he did save him. If you just let me finish instead of interrupting me all the time, we'll be done soon and you can really meet him." he said, clearly annoyed.

"Maurice has been accepted by our leader because he saved Lukas and because he asked to be accepted. Yes, I know this sounds odd, but Maurice wants to know us better, according to Tommy. He said that he will be doing research over our way of living."

"So he's a researcher?" someone asked.

"Yes, he's a researcher. Don't be scared of him. He smells very nice, actually." he said.

"Tommy is crazy." someone said.

"Who's Tommy?" I asked.

"Tommy is our elder, then one you did meet." the pikachu said. And he continued talking to the colony.

"And while we're here, I would also like to warn everyone that the raichu are roaming around the colony lately. Please be careful. Maurice has also attacked a ekans while he saved Lukas, and I predict they won't be happy about that. Everyone be aware that they could attack us soon as revenge." he said.

"Guardie already took down one ekans today, so I don't expect them to come this day. But I want to warn you again: Be aware!" he said on a dangerous tone. "And that's all, meet Maurice!" he said with a smile.

I didn't really know what to think. About a quarter of the colony seemed happy to see me and wanted to check me out, a half didn't really know what to think, and another quarter wasn't amused. But I hadn't much time to think, a lot of pikachu wanted to meet me. The older pikachu were just as curious as the younger ones. That's one of the things I like what about these species. Pikachu are very social and very caring and above all: very clean. That's why they're popular pets.

I sat down, noticing that the younger pikachu were also present. Some of them still hadn't got enough of me and came for a second inspection. Because they loved me, more and more of the older pikachu got curious and decided to investigate me. It was exactly the same as we humans. They didn't want to stand out of the others so they came up to me anyway. Only a few really refused to see me, and those were mainly males.

A lot of pikachu seemed to like my smell. "He smells nice..." and "Do you smell that?" were things I heard a lot... I must have a really nice smell... Which I cannot smell myself.

What I also discovered was that they mainly wanted to know my scent. The rest didn't really interest them. Only a few really checked me out more than only sniffing me. I already knew that scent was important to pikachu, but as human I didn't really realise that they really knew each other by scent and not face recognition, like we humans do. Yes, of course there's a little of that present in a pikachu mind, but the most important thing is and remains scent. After most of the pikachu had checked on me, Lukas joined me.

"I'm hungry. You want to go find some food?" he asked me.

"Sounds fine to me... When will I meet the pichu? I thought I'd meet them right now." I said.

"Not yet. It's too dangerous for them to come out yet. We wait until the ball of... Ehm... What was it... SUN! until the sun is right there, so they have as much light as possible. That scares away predators and makes them easy to see when they attack.

"Alright then, let's go find some food!" I said while looking at Espeon.

"Coming with us?" I asked.

"Yeah, why not. Maybe you can learn something from us now..." she chuckled, as we left the colony and headed inside the forest.


	9. Eating and meeting

_Hey everyone, chapter 9! It took me a bit longer, but it's the longest of all. It includes some perspective changes, which Pichufan, my beta-reader (thanks again!) seemed to like very much._

_BloodyStarGeneral, my original beta-reader, is in hospital right now. Lukas (that's his name): Lukas, Espeon, Maurice and the pikachu colony send you their greetings and best wishes!  
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_Again, if you got any requests for the story (cuteness, more action, you name it) or any perspective ideas, ideas about anything, please email me! I'd love to adjust some stuff for my readers. Interactive story style or something like that. (Lukas: What's that?)  
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_Anyway, enjoy this part!  
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><p>We made our way to the forest. I moved quickly through the woods as I was used to and Espeon followed me quickly.<p>

"Hey, wait for me!" Maurice said. I stopped, turned around and smiled at him.

"You need to learn to move faster through the woods!" I said.

"Yeah, you got easy talking. You're small and you can run much faster than I can run on two legs... Plus, I'm a lot bigger than you."

That was certainly true. Maurice was indeed bigger and slower. Although for a human, he was quite quick. I had humans chasing me before and they all gave up quickly. But Maurice was different... His smell was like... I could not really tell, but it was nice... He could handle me very well, as he had shown when he saved me and when we were alone when the ball of light was going down... He wanted me to call it 'sun'... But whatever.

"In these woods you cannot move slow. Predators are always lurking on you. Pidgeotto, noctowl, sparrow. Those are the most dangerous. You really got to keep track of the air, or you're done for. I said. "Really, you can't just stick around spots for a long time unless you know for sure you're safe."

"Don't forget the pokémon on the ground..." Espeon said. "Those snakes, the raichu, and others are lurking on us. They won't attack you that quickly, Maurice, but I think when you are longer with the colony, they will."

"Why that?" Maurice asked.

"Because you'll get our smell." I said to him. "You may not smell it, but we certainly do, and they also do. You'll smell like pikachu. Right now, you already smell like pikachu. That's because we checked you out today. But that'll go away when you would leave us. If you stay longer, you will slowly get our scent on you, which makes others able to tell you're from our colony."

"Other pikachu? Or all pokémon?" he asked me.

"Depends." Espeon said. "If one of them already knows the smell of this colony, it will identify you as a colony member... Pikachu around here know all colony scents. They will know you live with us, just because of that particular scent. It's maybe hard to understand for a human, but scent is the most important thing we use. We can tell about anything just by your scent."

While Espeon was speaking, I checked my surroundings, looking for potential danger. Everything seemed fine. The air, for as far I could see it, was clear. I perked my ears, but I couldn't detect any strange sound or any sound that might be a threat. And between all the scents that I could smell in the forest I couldn't detect any strange or weird smells. No, my instincts told me everything was fine.

"I guess you're right... If it comes to survival, I think you'll win it from me..." Maurice chuckled. "Where are we going?"

"There are some trees with apples nearby. I get my food there." I said, while taking off again. Walking on all fours, a bit slower this time, giving him some time to keep up with me. After a short walk, we arrived at a place with apples. A lot of apple trees were standing right here, and even though the winter was just over, there were apples on them. Looking to the air once again and sniffing around, I made sure everything was safe. Maurice appeared right behind me, as well as Espeon.

"Those look very, very nice..." Maurice said.

"They ARE nice..." I said. "I love to eat apples..."

I jumped Maurice's shoulder and immediately jumped from his shoulder to a lower branch. I used my claws and tail to grab myself tight to it and keep my balance while I moved towards the first apple.

"Can you throw some down for us?" Maurice asked.

"Well no thanks, I'd prefer some berries!" Espeon said as she turned around and walked over to some bushes with Oran and Sitrus berries. "Lukas and I come here regularly... He loves apples and I love the berries."

"You know, I never actually ate one... I fed them to pokémon but never ate them myself..." Maurice said while I threw an apple down. He caught it, thanked me, and started eating.

I made my way down the tree and sat down. I took a bite from the apple and purred as juice came down my mouth and fur as I bit it, as well as a great scent. I loved apples. The aroma coming from the fruit filled my nose and I took another bite, purring again as more juice came from it. I smacked my lips and licked the apple. The taste was just too good...

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><p>Taking a bite from my apple, I followed Espeon to the bushes with berries. I watched the surroundings. This place was beautiful. It was a mixture of forest and long areas of grass. This place was a dent in the forest. If you checked from the place we came from, at the right you had forest and at the left, you could watch and see hilly grassland for miles and miles. It was a perfect spot to ask someone to marry you, I thought while taking another bite from the fruit I had received from Lukas.<p>

"Oh, I just LOVE Sitrus..." Espeon said while she used her claws to grab one of the berries. It fell down and she started to eat it.

"Do they taste good?" I asked her.

"Good? Great! I can't believe you never tried one." she said.

"Oh, I'll try one now." I said. I got myself a Sitrus berry and took a bite. It tasted like lemon and it did actually taste great. While chewing on my berry, I watched Lukas feasting on his apple.

"He really likes those, doesn't he?" I said.

"Lukas? Oh yeah, he loves apples. But I prefer berries, but sometimes I take a apple. They taste quite good, but I prefer the taste of Sitrus berries." she smiled.

And while we were eating, we got lost in a conversation about me using berries on sick and injured pokémon in the pokémon center. I explained we always used them to make pokémon heal quicker or heal diseases, while we also mixed them to create a double effect in one drink. Espeon seemed rather interested, but she still found that we humans were complicated creatures.

"We think exactly the same about pokémon." I chuckled. "We try to uncover every secret, every move and every action from you and yet we still can't fully understand you." I said while turning my eyes to Lukas. And it made my heart almost stop. A persian had sneaked up to the little rodent. It was lying low in the grass, unnoticed by Lukas.

"Lukas is in danger. A persian!" I said to Espeon.

"What? Where! I don't see it!" Espeon said.

"Right there!" I said while pointing at it. Meanwhile, Lukas was still not aware of the danger close to him. He was halfway his apple and wasn't planning on stopping his meal anywhere soon.

The persian slowly moved closer, using its cat instincts and body to slowly make its way to the little pikachu. I didn't know what to do. If I would move closer, it would for sure strike before fleeing. If I did nothing, Lukas was done for.

"I can see him now..." Espeon said.

"Don't tell me I have to save his ass again..." I said while looking at the scene. Lukas was about 200 meters away. I sprint to Lukas wouldn't do good, he would notice us and be caught by the persian if we did, being distracted by us.

"I'm afraid so... I think he relied on you to cover him..." Espeon said.

"I got a plan, but I hope he'll listen to me..." I said while looking closely at the persian that was close enough to strike Lukas. It lied down in the grass, and after watching Discovery Channel I knew what was gonna happen: On one particular moment it would launch itself using it hind legs and run for the pikachu, using the element of surprise to catch the rodent.

Watching the cat carefully, I waited for a sign... A sign... A sign... If it would move its hind legs, getting ready to launch, it would strike within a short time... I was waiting for that sign... Lukas was still eating, enjoying his meal.

"Does Lukas know quick attack or agility..." I whispered to Espeon.

"He knows quick attack..." Espeon replied while holding her breath.

"You seem to know much about pikachu... Have you been at that colony?" he asked.

"My dad has a pikachu." I lied.

"Oh, alright then. Here." he said while showing me a ID.  
>The cat moved his hind legs... At THIS moment I had to activate my "plan". I shouted as loud as I could:<p>

"LUKAS! DODGE WITH QUICK ATTACK, GO!"

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><p>Another bite... I loved this. I closed my eyes and felt a great feeling of satisfaction wash over me. Yes - it was a great feeling. Just before I wanted to take another bite I heard Maurice... "Dodge with quick attack..." mmmm...<p>

It took a while before the words really registered in my mind. Dodge with... Wait, dodge? Was I attacked? But I didn't feel like it... I looked around in a dreamy way... I couldn't be in danger, I had checked everything not even thirty seconds ago... Yet my pleasurable feeling left me all of a sudden and a feeling of fear took part of me. My senses returned to me within the blink of an eye and I suddenly didn't feel safe anymore - I had to return to either the forest or Maurice, and I had to do it quickly! My instinct suddenly alerted me that I had to leave, and that I had to leave right now!

I got down onto all fours and dashed for safety, and not a moment too soon, because when I dashed away, a persian appeared! It dashed for me, missed me by just a hair, and ran after me.

I sighed in relief. Lukas had indeed listened to me without even thinking - after I shouted him to dodge he had dashed for me immediately. The persian had missed him, but was still following him. It would give up soon as it was scared for me, and, on top of that, Lukas was running faster. Lukas came running up to me and jumped my shoulder. I could feel his heart pounding as he held on to me.

"That... - scared me." he said while panting. "I thought you were still around me." he said while looking at me. The persian was standing about 50 meters away from us, his eyes looking straight at the little mouse.

"Well, I'm happy you did what I told you to do. Otherwise I think you wouldn't be standing here right now..." I said to him.

"That's the second time Maurice saves your life, Lukas!" Espeon said on a stern tone. "And I thought you could look after yourself..." she added.

"Well I can, but..." Lukas started.

"But what...? Those were two life-threatening mistakes! You may be happy this human is here, otherwise you'd be dead right now!" she stated.

"But... I thought he was standing next to... me..." Lukas said softly... Feeling guilty about what Espeon has said. He looked at the ground and showed very sad, knowing that Espeon was right.

"I can't keep saving you. You need to take care of yourself!" I said. "Plus, it makes the story boring..."

"Story?" Lukas asked.

"Never mind that." I said. "You know, when you save me, we're equal." I laughed. "I'm sure I'll do something stupid within a certain time. Then you help me, OK?" Lukas seemed to cheer up a bit after I said that. He jumped from my shoulder and taunted at the persian, which was still standing in front of us.

"Don't do stupid things, Lukas. We both know you would be eaten right now if I hadn't ordered you to do a quick attack." I said. Lukas looked at me.

"But I want to fight him..." he said.

"Fight him...? You barely escaped death and you want to fight... I'll never understand you pikachu. Not yet." I sighed. "Alright, do thunderbolt!" Lukas listened immediately. He released a strong thunderbolt to the persian. The persian jumped aside but was hit by the thunderbolt, since its range was bigger than the jump a persian could make. It stopped and collapsed to the ground, paralyzed by the shock.

"Well done, Lukas. I didn't know you were that powerful!" I said. Lukas looked proudly at me and at the persian.

"Let's go home... I'm tired..." he said while releasing a wide yawn.

"Tired...? But it's only... 12:30!" I said while taking out my smartphone.

"Twelve Thirty? What's that?" Lukas said while looking at me.

"That's human time, silly." Espeon chuckled. "I've got no clue what that means, but I know it's time. It must be."

"You're right, it's time. Alright, let's head back to the colony then..." I said while starting to walk back.

"Do you think you can find your way back?" Lukas asked. "You humans seem to get lost quickly in forests like these."

"Oh, don't worry about that. I've saved the GPS location of the colony. I can find it from anywhere." I said.

"What's GPS?" Espeon asked me. "You humans have so much things! How can you know how it all works?"

"Look." I said while getting my GPS app on screen. "Let's see... Colony!" I said while tapping the saved position. It appeared on screen and a arrow pointed towards the direction of the colony.

"The colony is that way..." I said while pointing towards the path we came from "...and it's about 950 meters away from here."

"Ninehundredfifty meteres? How much... What is... You humans are crazy." Lukas said. "That ' time' thing was complicated, but this?"

"Oh, it's actually 950 steps from here to the colony." I said.

"What is 950?" Lukas asked. This question surprised me. Even though pikachu always looked smart and intelligent, couldn't they even count?

"Can you count...?" I asked Lukas.

"Uhm... What is count?" he asked me.

"You know, one, two, three?" I said. "How much is this?" I said while raising one finger.

"A finger." he replied.

"How many fingers?" I asked.  
>"One?" he said unsure.<p>

"That's good. And this?". I raised four fingers.

"Uhm... One?" he asked carelessly. That was enough proof for me. He couldn't count, which surprised me. Aren't they able to keep track of the colony numbers? Do they even keep track of that, in case someone gets lost?"

"How many pichu do you have right now?" I asked Lukas.

"Um, well, you got Shocky, Shooky, Karen, Linzi, Sparky, Orlando and Dillan... And... Uhm... Tim and Julia!" he said while looking at me smiling.

"So, how many are there?" I asked him.

"Uhm... One... Two..." the pikachu said slowly. His mind was busy processing the question I had just asked him. Was he able to tell me that the answer was 9?

"Do you know the answer?" I asked Espeon telepathically.

"It was 5, was it?" she replied without saying a word. I sighed virtually inside my head.

"No, its 9." I said.

"I don't know... Much." Lukas said. "And there will come more pichu soon... Mom said we got at least nine pregnant females which is more than last year. We had one female giving birth in the winter but only one pichu survived that, and that's Tim. But there will be also pichu evolving soon, so there's room for the new pichu. Otherwise we have to make a new pichu playroom..."

I completely forgot about that. It was birth season. Young pokemon were born in this time of year to ensure the best surviving chances and a summer to create some knowledge about surviving and some fat for the winter.

Suddenly, we heard a loud BANG nearby. It sounded like a gunshot. Lukas and Espeon were both gone in a blink, while I looked around to see if I was able to locate the possible hunter. I walked further, noticing Lukas and Espeon both following me through the sides and not over the path. Lukas came from the bushes and jumped my shoulder.

"I smell danger." he said.

"I smell it too..." Espeon said. Just as she finished her sentence, I saw a man in the forest. He hadn't seen us yet, but I quickly ordered Lukas and Espeon to hide, as I saw him holding a gun. He was clearly on the hunt.

"HEY!" he shouted. I acted like I saw him for the first time.

"Oh hi! Was it you that shot just now?" I asked.

"What? Yeah, yeah. There have been reports of a seriously injured raichu around which possibly needs to be shot to prevent further suffering..." he said.

"Can't you bring him to a pokemon center?" I asked. He came from the dense forest, and stood before me.

"Not really, the wounds are too bad to be healed. At least, so they say." he said.

"Did you see it?" I asked.

"Seen what?"

"The raichu. You just shot at something, I guess." I said.

"Oh, that was a test shot." he smirked. "Nothing to worry about."

"So you think I'm gonna tell you so you can shoot them?" I said to him with sarcastic voice.

"Don't try to be funny. I've got a permit to shoot them." he said not very friendly, trying to find something in his pockets.

"So you like hunting them and killing them. Maybe they got a mate or even children and you just go around shooting them." I said. He looked straight at me.

"Pokemon ranger?" I asked. "Why is a pokemon ranger going around this forest shooting a raichu?"

"Well, the raichu is only one part of the job... I'm actually on a mission to lower the amount of hunted pokemon here. And the reason I got a gun is because those illegal poachers don't care to shoot me."

"That explains a lot..." I said.

"Oh... Alright then... Have you seen pikachu around here?" he asked.

"Yes, I have... Lukas, Espeon! You can trust this guy. Come on out!" They both came out of the bushes where they have been laying. The man quickly pointed the gun to the pokemon but lowered immediately as soon he saw they weren't a threat.

"Soooo... You're protecting them? Good thing to see... I have seen you before..." he said to Espeon. "You come to town quite often." Espeon said something in her own language. I suddenly realised she has stopped using telepathy, making me unable to understand what she said.

"You can find a pikachu colony up ahead." I said while pointing to the fields with apple trees. "There are apple trees there and I regularly saw pikachu getting apples and berries there. I think it's at the other side of the fields. At least I'm moving my tent to somewhere around there." I said while looking at the place as if this was all true.

"Oh, thanks! That'll make things easier for sure." the man said before taking off to the location I had just pointed him to.

"See ya later!" he shouted back. I waited before he was completely gone before saying anything.

"I don't trust him." I said. "That ID looked nothing like a real pokémon ranger ID. How about you?"

"I can feel he has bad meanings..." Espeon said.

"He doesn't feel very right..." Lukas said. "Unlike you." he smiled while climbing my back and shoulder. "Lets head back to the colony before he comes back... I actually got shivers when he pointed that gun at me..."

"Haha, I wouldn't allow him to shoot you, don't worry." I said.

After a couple of minutes we made it back to the colony. I still got some nervous glances from several pikachu, but most of them greeted me happily. Why they were so happy that I was here I did not understand, but I didn't bother. As long most pikachu liked me I would be fine. Then a female came running for us.

"Hey Maurice, come with me!" she asked.

"Why...?" I asked.

"Just come, you'll see." she said as she turned around and walked off. Even Lukas who wanted to take a nap was curious what she wanted to show me so badly.

"I can't come, I need to do some stuff. I gotta check the snake colony to see if they're up to something today." Espeon said.

"Oh, too bad... Well, good luck and watch yourself..." I said.

"Oh, don't worry about me." she said. "I won't get into danger!" and she took off to the nearby forest edge.

"I think I already know what she's gonna show you..." Lukas said on my shoulder, while we followed the female. "But I'm not entirely sure..."

"What is it then?" I asked.

"You'll see." Lukas smirked. We reached a clearing in the colony. The female ran straight for it. When I came closer I suddenly saw pichu playing. It was adorable to see them doing their playful business. As soon one spotted me they all ran for the baby-sitters (which were three females plus some watching guards) and hid behind it, looking at me with anxious eyes, except one. He was standing right in front of the baby-sitters and watched me daringly. I simply walked up to him and sat down.

"Pichu!" it said. Espeon's telepathy was out of range, so I had to rely on my own interpretation again.

"Pika. Pika pikachu." Lukas said, while jumping off my shoulder. He made his way to the baby-sitters and stood behind the sitters and pichu.

"That's great, Lukas, but I can't understand you anymore." I said smiling at him. I reached my hand out for the pichu that stood before me. But when I came closer, or close enough for the pichu to panic, it whined and quickly ran behind his protectors. The sitters all chuckled, as if they expected this to happen. Then they turned around and said something to the pichu. They looked questionable at their teachers and then at me. Yet, no one had the courage to get closer to me.

"Come on, I won't bite...!" I said while gently reaching out my hand. I laid my hand on the soft grass, palm upwards and wiggled my fingers. This attracted the attention of the pichu (and also the sitters). The pichu that had stood before me was the first to come closer, followed by another female pichu. The male stopped about halfway, not wanting to move further without the baby-sitters backing him up. The female however came closer, flinched as I wiggled my fingers, but quickly moved closer again and sniffed my finger. She squeaked soft and happily as I slowly and gently started to rub it across her chin.

"You lost against a girl..." I said provocative at the male, while smiling gently at him. He looked angry at me, but them came closer. Meanwhile, the female had climbed my lap and requested more attention by holding her arms upwards and requesting me to pick her up. I picked her up and held her in front of me. She checked me over very interested and wanted to be placed on me. I placed her on my left shoulder where she started to sniff my clothes and my neck. The male pichu had also climbed my lap, but he decided it would be cooler to climb me. His claws dug into my sweater and slowly yet surely he was climbing his way up to my right shoulder.

Encouraged by the two successful pichu (and the baby-sitters), the other pichu came closer. One or two already decided I wasn't that scary, and I decided that it would be better if I remained as low as possible so the pichu wouldn't be that scared of my size. I laid down on my back, grabbing both pichu on my shoulder and halfway my shoulder to prevent them from falling off. This had immediate effect on the other pichu: they didn't seem to be that scared anymore now that they could see over me more easily.

After a minute or five I had turned into a pichu playground. The baby-sitters were sitting right next to me while I was playing tag with some of the pichu, where they had to catch my hand. Others used my body as a jungle gym or something related and one was trying to get my attention by climbing my head. Using my both hands to catch some pichu every now and then, evading others that were trying to catch it (and that included some enthusiastic cuts from pichu claws) I saw they were getting tired. Some of them had quit playing and had cuddled up near the baby-sitters, which were now grooming them. Lukas had curled himself up with his tail around him and looked at me.

"Gonna take a nap?" I asked him. He nodded and looked at the tired pichu.

"Pikachu pi" he said while releasing a big yawn. One pichu grabbed his tail, dragged it away from him and cuddled up against him, releasing a deep sigh. Lukas didn't seem to bother, he simply curled his tail around the pichu and himself again and closed his eyes, enjoying the nice and warm sunlight. Yes, maybe it was a good time to take a nap... I stood up, moved closer to Lukas and laid myself down comfortable using my sweater as a pillow. On my side, looking at the pichu and the rest of the pikachu, I noticed that a lot of pikachu also seemed to take a nap. It probably was naptime for the colony, and not only for the pichu. One thing was for sure: this was a perfect spot to take a nap, lying in the sun and closing my eyes, I enjoyed the sun shining on me. When I suddenly felt some movement at my belly I watched as some pichu decided that I was a perfect spot to sleep against. They came snuggling against my belly and all fell asleep. One climbed my sweater snuggled against my face, rubbing its cheeks against me. I fell asleep, placing my arm and hand around the little creature, as if I had never done different...


	10. Learning a lesson

_Hi everybody, a new chapter! I hope you like it. Gotta warn before reading: The first part is a bit more action packed than the rest of the entire story. But it's nature... I guess. Hope you like it! Any comments, ideas and other stuff are welcome through PM and reviews. Happy pentecost!_

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><p>A pain shot through me. I opened my eyes and saw three arbok near me, and one had its teeth deep inside my leg! Pichu and pikachu screaming surrounded me and I used my other foot to kick it as quickly as I could. It let go and I whined in pain. It hissed fiercely at me. No poisonous bite, that was for sure, but the arbok had done serious damage to me. Another arbok had grabbed a pichu. The little rodent screamed and struggled as hard as it could, but it was no use. The arbok bit down on the rodent... A snapping sound could be heard as the pichu's neck broke... The creature didn't move anymore and was gulped down in one go.<p>

The third arbok was sliding to me quickly, targeting the little pichu that had slept just near my head. I quickly grabbed it, stood up and stumbled away from the snakes, but was tackled by the arbok that had grabbed my leg. I fell down and rolled on my back, the pichu in my hands. It used its speed to bite me again and I screamed in pain as it's teeth made their way into my soft skin. The third arbok appeared. It didn't even look for me, but immediately targeted the pichu in my hands. Knowing I had nowhere to go, I defended the pichu all I could. It struck - pain erupted from my hands, but I didn't let go. But the arbok wasn't done yet. It struck again, with me unable to dodge any attack. Grunting heavily from pain and despair, I had to let go the pichu as the feeling inside my hands was completely gone. The arbok simply pushed them aside and then struck for the pichu. "NO!" was the only thing I could shout before the little rodent was captured. The arbok that bit my leg now released me and went over to the third arbok. Both started fighting about the prey. It grabbed the pichu from the other arbok and pulled. But it didn't let go this meal, instead, it bit down even harder to prevent the other arbok from stealing its lunch. The pain cries from the pichu were unbearable while it now was pulled from either sides. Both arbok pulled harder... Until the pichu was teared completely apart by both strong jaws. I watched speechless and in complete horror as the both arbok completed their meal and now focussed on me. Any attempt to escape had only led to a lot of pain and I faced both predators. One of them looked at me... I knew my end was near... After only one day, I was done for, captured while sleeping. The arbok faced over me, pulled back, got ready for a attack, I got ready to face death... The snake then came at me with incredible speed, its jaws wide open revealing its teeth striking within milliseconds and... Everything went black.

I sat straight up, breathing heavily, all sweaty, adrenaline running through me. I looked around quickly. It was sunny, pichu had snuggled up against me, Lukas was lying next to me with one pichu under his tail, and I saw Volt looking around and guarding us... It had all been a nightmare...

I sighed in relief, shook my head, got everything together and looked at all the pichu. They were all peacefully resting, except two. The one on my sweater (that acted as pillow) had been awakened rudely by my reflex and stared at me. I watched her and smiled. Another was restless and moved back and forth releasing soft whines and... Sparks. My virtual bite wound was at the exact spot the pichu was resting his cheek against mine, causing it to be black and a bit burned. I wasn't the only one dreaming! I gently shook the pichu awake. It looked at me sleepy for a moment, curled up against my leg again and continued his nap. I turned to the pichu that had been sleeping near me.

"Just a horrible, horrible dream... " I said to her. She looked at me and smiled.

"Pichu?" it said on a cute tone.

"Yeah, I'm alright... Don't worry." I said while removing the sweat of my forehead. I watched my phone - I had been barely sleeping for fifteen minutes, which meant the pichu also had only a short nap. Laying down against the surprised rodent, I gently lay my arms around her while I rubbed against her cheeks. She purred gently and snuggled against my face.

"Pichu..." she said slowly and releasing a deep sigh.

"Sorry for waking you up... I couldn't help it... I dreamed you were eaten... It was horrible..." I said to the little creature while gently stroking her. She opened her eyes and looked at me.

"Pichu pi...?" she said.

"Don't think about it... You need to sleep..." I said, smiling widely and getting in sleeping position. The pichu smiled and nuzzled my face, followed by a gentle lick. I raised my head, looked surprised at the pichu and lay down again.

"You are a very cute but strange pichu..." I said gently. My heartbeat had lowered quickly after realising it was only a dream. Stroking the pichu one more time I saw it had fallen asleep. I laid my head close to her and fell asleep quickly after her...

After a peaceful nap (what was left of it) it was time for the pichu to play again, I thought. Wrong. The pikachu led them outside the colony, followed by some males and females to protect them. Lukas was among them, although I noticed he prefered to stay close to me. I wandered after the pichu, knowing that there was something educative going to happen. Since I was probably even worse educated than those pichu (of course, pikachu style, not human) I thought it would be a great time to learn something.

We went through a part of the forest and ended up near a lake. It was quite big. The pichu did not go in the water. One pikachu took the lead, watched the water, and then raised his paw and pointed at the lake.

"Pika! Pikachu-pi. Pika pikachu. Pika pika. Chu-pi-pikachu." he said.

"Pichu, pichu pi?" one of the pichu asked.

"Pikachu." the pikachu said firmly. The pichu them looked to the water and mumbled something. The pikachu watched them interested, but then attracted their attention.

"Pika. Pikachu pi." he said. Then he turned around, charged his cheeks and fired a thunderbolt to the water. The water conducted the electricity immediately and in a range of hundred meters all the water was electrocuted. After that the effect slowly faded. Wondering what the pikachu did, he turned around.

"Pika. Pikachu pi." he said as he looked at the water, as if he was waiting for something. It took about five seconds, but then a magikarp appeared. He floated above the waterline, not moving. I watched the fish pokémon... Was he... Dead?

"Pikachu pi." the pikachu said. "Pika pikachu. Pika pika. Pi-Pikachu pikachu!". The pichu watched in interest (and so did I) as the pikachu turned around and watched the fish. As if he knew, the fish started moving and disappeared under the water. I thought he was gone, but instead of relaxing, the pikachu (all of them) got ready for something. I could feel something was about to happen, the atmosphere and my own instinct told me. Getting ready to protect the pichu (I just couldn't let something happen to them, could I?) I waited for something unknown.

Suddenly the magikarp jumped out of the water and straight for the pichu. The pikachu had a quicker response time than me (and were ready for this) and immediately tackled the magikarp down. The magikarp was splashing on the grassy edge of the water, and looked rather... It looked as a wild magikarp. I couldn't make out any emotions. Two pikachu held it down and sparked their cheeks dangerously at the fish. The pichu had been scared and were hiding behind the bigger pikachu and also behind me. The pikachu called them back and the pikachu gently pushed them back at the place they had been standing. I sat down on my knees and gently pushed the pichu back.

"Go on, we'll protect you." I smiled. The pikachu all looked happy I just went along in what they did.

"Another plus for me" I thought happily. The pikachu that stood in front of the magikarp meanwhile was teaching something to the pichu. He pointed at the magikarp, said something, and then pointed at the lake.

"Pika, pikachu. Pika pika pikachu." he said firmly. The pichu all nodded and then were allowed to check on the magikarp, which they all immediately did. I also moved closed and checked on the magikarp. Then the pichu had to back off, as the pikachu holding the magikarp charged. They both released a strong thunderbolt and fried the magikarp. It didn't move anymore as soon they were done with it... Cruel, yet, this was nature... The magikarp were enemies of the pikachu. After they got rid of the magikarp by simply throwing it into a deeper part of water, the pikachu started washing themselves at the lakeside. I thought it was kinda gross, washing yourself in water you just troubled with a magikarp body. But they didn't seem to care that much. The magikarp was still fresh, so not yet threatening. I decided I would move the body away as soon everybody was done.

I sat down at the lakeside with my feet in the water, enjoying the warmth of the sunlight and the cooling water. Searching the "teacher" pikachu, I saw him and asked him to come. He came and sat near me.

"So, you are the teacher?" I asked him. He looked at me, shook his head and pointed at the other pikachu.

"Pika, pikachu. Pika pikachu pika!" he said. After a while I figured they took turns learning the pichu stuff. They learned the pichu what they were good at. After a while of talking and a lot of gesturing I understood the pikachu was a hunter and guard of the colony. All the males seemed to guard the colony every now and then, like a part time job.

"So you learned them to watch out before they take a swim...?" I asked. He nodded and pointed at the place they had dumped the magikarp.

"Pika. Pika - (he acted as if he ate something) - CHU..."

"Otherwise they get eaten." I said. He nodded happily.

"Pika pikachu!" he said. He sounded rather happy.

"Why so happy?" I smiled at him.

"Pika! Pikachu pika." he said, sighed and pointed at the pichu.

"Pika pikachu..." he sighed again as he looked at the playing and grooming pi(ka)chu. He jumped up and started to groom himself, just as Lukas showed up. He was a mess and his bandages he still had were all wet. He had clearly been playing with mud, as I saw some pichu and younger pikachu do the same at the background.

"Oh Lukas, look at that!" I said to the pikachu. He looked scared at my response, but quickly recovered and came up to me.

"Ugh..." I said while removing the things. Happily, his wounds were almost clean and were almost healed. How do those pokémon heal so quickly? A human would take at least two weeks to achieve what Lukas had done.

"Your wounds look great, better than I could imagine..." I said with big eyes to the pikachu.

"Pika pikachu!" he said happily as I removed the medical stuff from him.

"There you go, all done. You don't need them anymore." I said to the pikachu. "And you're absolute mess, I thought pikachu were clean pokémon!" I added with a vague smile. "Come here."

As if he was a baby pikachu, I quickly washed all the mud of him using water from the lake. With all my skill from the pokécenter, it would be done in no time. Instead of the response I had been expecting, a whining Lukas that would say he didn't need to be helped, he purred gently as I rubbed the mud out of his back fur. I reached his head, which seduced me to give him a gentle and nice cuddle by gently scratching behind his ears. I smiled as the pikachu relaxed and lay down on his back (which meant I had to start all over cleaning him). His arms were all spread out and his legs and tail were the same as Lukas had his eyes closed and enjoyed the sun and my attention. Knowing that pikachu love being cuddled, at least the domestic ones, I got some water and simply started rubbing his belly with water to clean him. This released more purring and gentle squeaks. Scratching slowly over his soft belly fur was like heaven for the little pikachu and suddenly I saw the pichu standing next to me that had been sleeping next to me. She jumped my leg and looked at Lukas, which squeaked happily every now and then and purred non-stop. She looked at me with a face that told "please-give-me-some-nice-cuddling-too!"

I laughed at the rodent and used my hand I didn't use for Lukas to scratch the pichu under her chin. She also released soft squeaks and she also laid down to enjoying the attention I gave her. After a while, suddenly the elder of the colony was standing next to me. I hadn't noticed him yet, and he watched as I was busy stroking both creatures.

"Pikachu..." he said with his low elderly-voice. I quickly looked back and saw him and stopped cuddling both creatures. But he smiled and ordered me to continue what I was doing. He said something to other pikachu, which looked at me and then nodded, smiling. Yes, it was only my first real day, and it felt like I was really accepted to this colony.

"Pika Pikachu?" he asked me.

"I feel fine, thanks..." I said to him. I just knew he asked me that. "Everyone's very nice to me... Since Espeon has translated some stuff for me I know I smell nice for you guys and that I seem to be good at handling you..." I said while looking at Lukas and the pichu before looking back at the elder.

"Pikachu." he said firmly. "Pika pik-" he said before he was interrupted by a loud splash followed by some pikachus shouting. I watched to the water. A pidgeot came out of the water flapping his wings fiercely, holding the magikarp the pikachu had just killed. It must have spotted it and decided that was a good and free meal. They were known to have very good eyes. With the fish in his claws he landed just next to us and looked at us. Some pikachu already took cover and had their ears flat against their body, waiting if they should flee. I also kept my guard to be sure he wouldn't attack me. Lukas had been awakened by everything and was also looking at the pidgeot. The pikachu closest to the pidgeot slowly backed off while the pidgeot looked at us. He looked around, spotted some pikachu, and then spotted some pichu. He roared, and then he flew to a pichu behind me lightning fast before being attacked by multiple pikachu. Thunderbolts all around him electrocuted him, making him fall to the ground. That was the sign to evacuate and I grabbed my pichu and wanted to flee, like all other pikachu and pichu did.

But, before I could go, the pigeot recovered, quickly looked around, spotted me, and turned around. I stopped. With nowhere to go, since behind me was water, and both left and right would result in a takedown attack from the pidgeot, I waited. The bird pokémon looked straight at me with its eyes, and I looked back. I was used getting negative glares, since some heal procedures required some painful actions. But this was different. The pidgeot was trying to get a desert and was in perfect condition.

The bird spread its wings and I was intimidated by its size when it did. Its width was almost three meters, and knowing that he would use his wings to attack me I wasn't very confident that I was able to protect the pichu in my arms. I slowly backed off, giving the pidgeot angry glares, but the bird slowly came for me. The pichu had buried her face into my chest and I could feel the little creature shiver. Probably they already learned that they should be scared of pidgeot...

While the pidgeot was intimidating me, multiple pikachu made their way from the forest. They were all sparking their cheeks dangerously and were shouting at the pidgeot to get the hell out of here. The pidgeot turned around so he could face both sides, his wings still spread out and growled angrily and dangerously. But the pikachu teamed up, scattered a bit and were surrounding the bird from the forest side. Then one female charged at the pidgeot and then everything went lightening fast.

The female charged, but missed as the pidgeot took off very quickly. But instead of going away, he looped around and came at all of us with a arial ace. I got ready to dodge, but was way too late. I was lucky since the pidgeot charged at the pikachu which could dodge him. The pidgeot turned around again with incredible speed and now came for me. I had to dodge. Left or right? Left or right? Left or right? Left or... RIGHT! I jumped out of the way, but the pidgeot responded and altered his attack so it would hit me. He hit me spot on and I was thrown into the lake with a enormous amount of energy. While I was hit, I let go loose of the pichu, which was also launched and landed a couple of meters further in the lake, where she disappeared under the waterline.

I emerged from the water and saw bubbles right of me. Looking around where the pichu was, I noticed she wasn't on land, so she must be there. Not knowing if she could swim, I quickly made my way over to her. But the pidgeot wasn't done with us: as soon he hit me, he quickly dashed higher in the air and was now diving at the water. Now I knew for sure: The pichu was there. Couldn't miss it. I swam as fast as I could, but I could never make it to the pichu on time. But the pidgeot needed to catch the pichu... And the pidgeot needed to be in the water to do so... From what I just had learned, the strong pikachu in this colony could easily fry the bird. I watched the waterside. I saw some pikachu standing on the side, but no one got into the water. They were all watching, including Lukas. I could see him standing right next to the elder pikachu. The pidgeot dove. He was almost hitting the water.

"LUKAS! THUNDERSHOCK ME!" I said. Knowing that the pidgeot would be electrocuted, just as the magikarp, I knew that the pichu would be unharmed. But wait, not only him, but also me! I'd forgotten that little detail and panicked. But there was no turning back. With a splash, the pidgeot hit the water and I saw Lukas charging. I could hear his cry and I felt electricity flow through me. I shouted, but knew that the pidgeot would also be hit with double damage. Nothing emerged from the water. I had to be quick. After the thundershock, I swam straight for the place the pidgeot had dove into the water. I watched and saw something yellow under water. The pidgeot was... Gone...? Or not? I didn't really care and dove for the pichu. Before I could grab her, I bumped into something. The pidgeot wasn't visible and his brown feathers made it unseeable from above, but I knew it had to be him. Opening my eyes underwater I could see a yellow, floundering blur which I grabbed, and then got back to the surface. I inhaled deeply and held the yellow creature above the water, who coughed and spit out some water, inhaled air and coughed again. She clung to me while I swam back to the side of the lake, walked out of it when I could feel the bottom of it and put down the pichu on the shore. Immediately her mother came, grabbed her and started to groom her while the pichu started cuddling her. I sighed deeply and was greeted by some pikachu which looked worried at me. I watched back to the lake. The pidgeot must be paralyzed by the shock, because he hadn't emerged yet... I sighed and I knew he had drowned. But again, that was nature. I had only protected myself and my colony. Had I?

The mother came up to me and said something, which must be a thank you.

"Don't thank me, thank that pikachu that has teached the pichu about that electricity trick and thank Lukas for thundershocking me..." I said while smiling. She looked strangely at me, but then also smiled. Lukas came up to me. He looked worried.

"Pika-pi pika pikachu?" he shouted while he stopped at my shoes and scratched my legs.

"I'm fine... A little dizzy, but fine..." I said smiling at him. I picked him up.

"Thanks for thundershocking me. You saved her (I pointed at the pichu) life." He smiled.

"Pika pikachu!" he said happily.

"Yep, and now we're gonna go back to the colony, I have to change clothes before I get sick. That water is freezing cold further in the lake." I said while shivering. We all walked back to the colony.

"Do these things happen every day to you guys?" I said.

"Pika." Lukas said while nodding.  
>"Jeez, you don't have a easy life." I said.<p>

"Pika." Lukas said again while shaking his head again.

"Oh, and Luuk?" I said.

"Pi?"

"I think we're equal now." I smiled at the pikachu.


	11. New life

_Hey everyone, another chapter! Bit more pichu focussed this time, I hope you like it. I changed the rating of the story to M, just to be completely sure it won't be banned or something. I don't know about the punishment on this site when you rate it wrong, so I did it just for safety.  
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_Happy reading, and please leave your reviews as usual. I really appreciate and does someone know where I can see the hitcount on my story? I can't seem to find it anywhere!  
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_I've had a couple of questions regarding the fact if Maurice will change into a pikachu. I'll spoil some things. Yes he will eventually. Maybe not in this story. Maybe in the sequel. I actually wanted to write the sequel (life of a pikachu) first but then realised the character set-up was not realistic if you didn't know what happened. Anyway: Maybe in this one. Maybe it will happen in a way you don't expect it to happen. Maybe. Yes, maybe. I have a vague storyline I just follow, the rest is just made up at the moment I write these things. Sometimes in college or while travelling to school I suddenly get something in my head that turns out to be a perfect part  
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_Alright, enough talking. Let's get started!  
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><p>After the attack and the dead of the pidgeot things went on as they usually did. One week later I had really found my place inside the colony. Since I had tons of stuff to learn about being a pikachu inside a colony, I decided to join the pichu. I now was an official babysitter and I loved every minute of it. It mainly consisted of playing with the pichu and preventing them from getting into trouble. And man, they got into trouble a lot, even though you would expect them to have learned something from the past year. All the pichu that were currently in the colony were from last year. The new pichu, from which the first ones were about to be born, were even worse, according to Vera, one of the real pikachu babysitters.<p>

Last week was still a "getting-used-to" week, for both pikachu, pichu and me. The pichu were still a bit scared of me because of my size. Even though they had no problems at all with cuddling up to me for a nap, if I walked towards them in full length or stood up next to them, you could see them panic. But things were getting better. I noticed that the females had less problems with me than the males did. They saw me more as a threat resulting in a cuddling fest on day two with only females. The boys didn't even want to come close. Yet again, at nap time they loved to. Their child minds just couldn't get things together, was my conclusion. This also explained why they got into trouble so much times. Although they were learned to watch for danger, although they were learned to watch every step, they simply didn't because they were childs, just as us humans. Childs don't see danger. Look at a average four year old crossing a road. He doesn't watch left or right, he just crosses. That was the exact same thing the pichu were having. And although I did my best learning them to listen to their parents and teachers, they just couldn't. But it didn't matter, since they had the pikachu and me to protect them. Lukas and co regularly joined the playing. They might be pikachu, but inside they were still young and playful. Yet, they were more mature and they were aware of dangers more often than the pichu. It was just great playing with all of them. It was fun but for the pichu very good way to control their electricity by playing shock tag.

About every day the weather was nice, the pichu would move outside the colony to get used to their territory and to learn stuff. Some days were basic knowledge, like where to find food, what you should eat and what you shouldn't. Very simple. But other lessons involved much harder things, like tracking other pikachu or climbing, or the "check-the-water-before-you-take-a-swim" lesson that was a close call for both me and Linzi. And although you might think every pikachu can climb, they have to learn it. And that was the funniest thing I had ever done with a pokémon. Learning them to climb a tree. One of the pikachu had just shown them a easy way to climb the tree we were standing for. And the little creatures were just staring at the pikachu like he was nuts. How were they ever going to climb this? Since I was working with those guys for a week, I just knew that question was bothering them.

"Alright, who's gonna go first?" I asked to the group. They all watched back at me. Some of them declared me crazy, even though I could not understand them. Espeon had been gone to check on the snakes once more and above all to just mind her own business. The pichu had all introduced themselves happily once they understood I could actually talk to them, and had all liked me, somewhere on day four. Yes, Espeon had been gone for a long time. I thought she'd sticked to the colony more often, but she appeared to be here less than I thought. Back to the pichu, and back to the main question of today: How were they going to climb this tree? I chuckled as they were standing there. It looked so funny. And then Shocky was the first to attempt a try. He jumped the first branch, which was very low. His mission was to get up to the tree as far as the pikachu was, which was a small three meters. I stood near the tree watching Shocky, which was looking around curiously for the next thing to do. He targeted his next branch, concentrated, got ready to jump and jumped for the next branch, but failed and fell down. He landed safely on his four legs and looked rather sad.

"Come on, you can do it." I said on a happy and encouraging tone. I gently stroked him and tapped the branch another time.

"Come on!" I said to the pichu while he jumped the first branch again.

"Pichu-pi..." he said with droopy ears.

"You can do it for sure." I said confidently. I was determined to make all those pichu pass this test, even if it would take the entire day. I had nothing better to do anyway, so why not. I tapped the second branch.

"Alright, make sure you jump high enough and make sure your claws are extended so you can grab the branch." I said like I was a professional pikachu climber. Shocky concentrated, I could see the determination in his eyes. He jumped for the second branch and, to everyone's (except mine) surprise he made it on the second try. All other pichu were impressed, as they all had tried already before I had joined, but they had never managed to get up there. Or, as the elder had stated it, it was a bad year for climbers. The current pichu just couldn't climb, he had said. Time to proof he was wrong. Shocky was standing on the second branch of the six he had to jump up. Shocky and Shooky were twins. Shocky was a more offensive pichu: He would always want to do things first, even if it got him into trouble. Shooky was a more defensive pichu: He would wait until his brother had found things out and do things right the first time. The rest of the pichu were as Shooky. They were all more defensive than offensive, and Shocky was their kind of "leader" if I can call it like that.

"Alright, now check for the next branch. You can take this one, or this one, or even this one. I said while tapping some branches. Shocky was around the height of my shoulders now, and he was curiously looking around. While he was looking, a second pichu wanted to try climbing / jumping up the tree. After a while, all pichu were trying to get to the top. Shocky had quickly reached the next two branches, but he had failed to jump the fifth one. He had tumbled down the tree, hitting multiple branches on his way down and taking Dillan with him. After multiple pichu had fallen, I was wondering if this really was the best way to learn how to climb. Sure, for pikachu this would look like the best way of doing it, but as a human, I knew you had to start small and slowly increase the toughness. And with three pichu in my lap that had fallen from a (for them) great height and had hurt themselves, I started looking for a better way to learn climbing. There were tons of other trees around here that would do great and that weren't that high... After another pichu hurt herself in her fall down, I decided to do things different. I called all pichu towards me and asked them to follow me. As soon we left the pikachu came out of the tree and shouted something at me. He didn't sound very happy, more like demanding. I turned around and looked at him.

"No, I won't come back. I'm gonna learn them to climb my way. This isn't going to work." I simply said nodding at the tree and turning around. He followed me, stood before me, and spread his arms.

"PIKA! Pika pikachu! Chu-PIKA!" he said, shouting some parts.

"Yes, I know you need to learn them how to climb, but you aren't exactly helping them." I said, looking at two pichu I was holding in my arms. The others had joined the group already.

"They're hurt, they were crying, and you just sat there in the tree. There are better ways to learn climbing than that." I said while taking a intimidating step forward. The pikachu looked at me, took a step backward and sparked his cheeks.

"Pika! Pikachu!" he said angrily.

"Go ahead." I said. After I came back from the pidgeot attack, I had found new shoes in a search for dry clothes in my backpack. Oak hadn't told me of those, but they had rubber soles and thus did not conduct electricity. I had tried with Lukas and told him to give me a good shock. It felt rather funny. A tingling sensation went through me when he shocked me... But it didn't hurt, not at all. Since then my old sneakers were abandoned and used as a toy for the pichu. However, I hadn't told anyone of those sneakers just to be safe. So the pikachu warned me again and then shocked me. I felt nothing, and it actually felt great to feel nothing. The pichu both flinched when the pikachu was about to launch the attack, but they looked surprised at me and at the pikachu when nothing seemed to happen and I was engulfed in lightening.

"You're done...?" I simply said when the shock was over. The pikachu looked foolish at me (like this: 0_0).

"But how..." I could hear him say in pikachu language.

"Because I'm a human." I said laughing while patting his head and walking right past him with the pichu behind me, including the two babysitters that had noticed we were on the move. He shook his head one more time, tapped it with his paw and then decided to follow me. At a lower tree with some opposing branches on different heights, I stopped. It was simply perfect to learn branch-jumping and climbing tree stumps.

"Alright everyone, listen up. I want you to learn how to properly jump here." I said while pointing at the branches. "You can start low, and as soon you feel like going higher you can go there." I said pointing at a higher tree branch. "You go first, Shocky. Show them how you should jump, you were doing great back there." I said while putting him down on the stump just twenty centimetres above ground.

"Pichu... PI!" Shocky said while leaping from one branch to another. With no depth to look at or to be scared of, he jumped much better. Soon, all pichu were practising on the lowest branch. The pikachu that had tried to stop me came and watched how I was doing my job. Well, job, I was just watching the pichu jumping back and forth on two tree branches, but it was a fun sight to see. Most of the pichu jumped and used their claws to pull themselves the last part up the branch. Others were already trying to jump further or closer to make them land perfectly. Shocky was the first to move on to the higher branches. Exactly the same as the lower ones, but higher in the tree. He hesitated for a while while standing there.

"Watch this." I said to the pikachu. I walked over to Shocky, lied down under the branches on my back with my head facing to him.

"Alright, if you fall, I'll catch you. Try to jump!" I said to Shocky.

He hesitated again, but after he looked at me he didn't want to disappoint me so he concentrated and jumped, but missed the branch completely and fell down. I caught him in mid-air.

"Good try... Try again!" I said while placing him back on the branch. "You can do it, you did it perfectly down there." I said while pointing at the lower branch. He nodded unsurely. I rubbed my cheek against his and said he could do it.

"Alright, attempt number two. And ACTION!" I said like imitating a director. Not that they understood, but Shocky knew he could jump now. He jumped again, grabbed the branch with his claws, tried to climb up but slid down because he couldn't get a firm grip. Another catch later I placed him back on the branch and told him to jump again. This time, I stood opposite of him so I could catch him when he was almost there. But his third jump was perfect, and he happily smiled at the pikachu that was standing at my feet.

"See? Three jumps and he knows how to do it. Go on, practise. If you think you're ready, you can climb that tree." I said while pointing at a tree nearby. "If you get a apple from it, you passed for today!" I smiled. The pichu jumped happily (on the branch) and started practising again. I felt just as if I was on a primary school and I was the teacher. But it worked. And it worked better than the pikachu method, in my opinion.

Soon, more and more pichu were taking the higher version of the branch jump training. More and more of them were jumping perfectly and they were all making great progress. When Lukas came by, he said even he couldn't jump that quickly by shaking his head when I asked him if he could. He did climb the tree to get a apple though, and started to eat it in front of the pichu. Even though it was kinda rude, it was a perfect timing.

I gathered all pichu, which now all jumped on the high branches and ordered them to attempt to climb the tree. After the first pichu made it to the top just fine (of course this was Shocky), the others followed. And all of them made it after just one morning of training. They didn't make it in one go, but they at least made it.

"See?" I said to the babysitters and the pikachu that was supposed to train them. "Humans CAN train pokémon." I got myself a apple and lied down next to the pichu, watching them eating their just gathered food.

"Well done guys..." I said while stroking some of them. After we finished lunch it was nap time for the pichu. I yawned. It surprised me how quickly I got used to taking a nap. In the sun I could easily fall asleep together with the small yellow creatures. Because I was the biggest, I was often used as sleep place with multiple pichu against me. Even my second night, after I was introduced. When I went into my sleeping bag, Lukas simply joined me, cuddled up against me inside my bag and said that this was normal for him. Pikachu share their body heat by cuddling up against each other at night. And Lukas wasn't the only one: More pikachu that liked me had just invaded my sleeping bag. The first nights it was kinda weird, but after a while I got used to it. Lukas was mostly nuzzling against my face and he wouldn't stop before I wrapped him in my arms. If he just liked to cuddle or wanted to be kept warm I didn't know, but it felt nice anyway. Not only he, but also a pregnant female joined us together with some others. Mainly the females, surprisingly. The males didn't really like to cuddle up against me (except Lukas... But he was a exception.). Probably they didn't like me as much the females did...

After a short nap it was playtime and I left the pichu group to explore some colony territory with Lukas. I did this every day to make sure I could navigate through the forest without my phone and to make sure I got used to my surroundings. We both loved to explore the forest bit by bit. Although Lukas knew the forest quite well, even he had places he had never been to or that he didn't know. His friends came with us often, making the explore time ending up in some sort of game in most of the cases, like playing tag, sneak up onto me, or disappear without a trace and scare the hell out of Maurice.

Besides exploring I also was trying to understand pikachu language. This was harder than I thought it would be. When Espeon was with me, I had asked Lukas to explain his language to me, but he simply couldn't. He was too young to understand what I meant. Happily Volt solved the problem: he could explain it to me. And his explanation was kinda complicated.

Pikachu language consisted of three syllables: Pi, Ka, and Chu. You mostly started your sentence with "Pi". Depending on what you were saying, you could say "Ka" or "Chu" as second. BUT you could also use "Pi". However, it wasn't really the text you spoke, it was the height of your tone. Minimal tone differences could give a syllable a complete new meaning. The point was you could use only "pi" and say the complete alphabet in pikachu language by changing your tone. Not that the pikachu knew the alphabet. Basically, you used the other syllables to make the sentence more smoothing than only saying "Pi". It's also easier to speak "Pika" than "Pi-Pi" because you have to stop for a tiny moment to get ready for the second "Pi" while you don't have that in the "Pika" part.

Volt had translated a sentence in pika language for me. After a lot of trying to recreate that sentence, I had finally done it. I had said "Hello, my name is Maurice." in pika language. But the pitch changes were hard. Very hard, and I was wondering how long it would take me to master them so I could speak proper pikachu. The way of "Pi", "Ka", and "Chu" wasn't really important. This would come automatically. Those pitches were hard. And I had to train it a lot before I could speak it. Because it weren't only letters to learn, but also different syllable. Like in english, you can say different letters on different places in a different way. And all those combinations had different tones. And those tone heights were so minimal that you really had to pick the right one, otherwise you could be scolding to someone without even knowing it. Yes, I really had enough to do and to learn inside the colony.

So, one day, while I was playing with some pichu, Lukas had came up running to me. Because I had worked in the pokémon center, I could do basic medical stuff to help the colony. The pikachu knew that. They knew it after I saved Lukas and had helped another pikachu with some nasty wounds. They should go and see me when they were sick or injured. Lukas pulled my jeans and looked panicked.

"What is it Luk?" I said. I mostly used the nick Luk for Lukas. He didn't seem to mind that at all.

"Pika-Pikachu-pi!" he said panting. He had been sprinting for me all the time. "Pika pikachu!" he said while pulling me.

I couldn't understand pikachu language yet, but it was more than clear I had to come.

"Alright, I'm coming. Don't panic." I said while removing some of the pichu from me. The babysitters would take over.

"Pikaaaaaaaa!" Lukas said impatiently. He pulled my jeans again. I stood up and followed him. He started to run and I also had to run to keep up to him.

"What is wrong with you? Did something bad happen?" I shouted while running behind the pikachu. He led me to my sleeping bag. When I got close, I could see multiple pikachu standing around it.

"Alright, what's happening..." my sentence was interrupted by a female pikachu lying inside my bag. She was huffing heavily, looked at me in pain and closed her eyes. "...here..." I finished my sentence. I looked over the pikachu.

"What's the matter, sweetie..." I said while laying my hand on her forehead. No fever. I already had a suspicion after I found my bag wet at her bottom. She was giving birth, on this dangerous place, outside. But after sleeping with me all these nights this must have been a safe place for her. I ordered all pikachu to leave her in peace, except two guards. I asked Lukas to get her mate, but he shook his head. Her mate was gone into the forest this morning and would return at dusk, I remembered. Some pikachu were visiting another colony today...

Getting myself back to the female I checked her to see how far she actually was with the delivery. Quite far. So far, she couldn't be moved anymore. Moving her inside the colony would be best, but that was no option anymore, since it was too dangerous, both for her and the newborn pichu.

I decided I would help her here. Not that she needed any help, but she needed some support, someone that helped her bear the pain. That made things a lot easier when you were giving birth, I had noticed back at the pokécenter. Trainers came their often with pokémon that were pregnant without even knowing they were. The closest call ever was a pikachu (coincidence?) almost giving birth on the pokécenter counter. Although 'experts' always advised to leave pokémon alone when they're giving birth, I knew from experience this wasn't the best thing to do. If you had a good bond with a pokémon, or if a pokémon trusted you, you should always stay with them, especially when they had a hard time. Pregnancy was one of those hard times. Specially for the female, or course. Just your presence was enough to make them be a lot more confident of themselves. Regularly I had pokémon that just wanted to have me around when they were giving birth. They didn't want to be left alone, which was completely understandable. Just someone which gave them the feeling that everything would be fine, that they would get things right. Normally, this was provided by a mate or trainer / owner. I gently lay down next to her and gently stroked her. This was the worst part of the delivery, but she had to deal with that.

"Is this your first time...?" I asked to the young female. She nodded just as another woe made her cringe in pain... The first time was always harder. Pikachu that had given birth before always had a easier time giving birth to a second or even third nest, although this didn't go up for all females. She looked at me with guilty eyes. She knew she was in my territory, even I could smell that (and that meant something). Although I wasn't happy about a pikachu giving birth here, I wasn't a person to get mad about it. It was already happening and nothing could stop it now. I would ring Oak for a new sleeping bag soon, so the female could stay in 'mine'. Problem solved. She couldn't stay outside anyway, but I was sure it wouldn't be nice to sleep inside it after she was done.

I snuggled my face against hers as I had done so much times at night with her. Sometimes she would try to move Lukas out of the way to make some room for herself. The third night I had complied to her by moving a heavily sleeping Lukas out of the way so she could come. She had loved it, just as Lukas did. I had been extremely careful, making sure I wouldn't damage any baby inside. Although I hadn't expected it, her mate seemed fine with what I did. Yes, it was just sharing body heat, but still. For human feeling, I was doing much more than only sharing body heat. I was awakened from these thoughts by another cringe of pain... The birth was really starting now...

After a small twenty minutes, four pichu were laying beside her. As soon the first one was born she immediately wanted to lick him clean, resulting in forgetting the ones coming after because she was too busy with the first one. It commonly happened with first time mothers... Besides that, for a first time mom, she was doing great. She lied near her children, licking the one closest to her holding him between her forepaws. She was exhausted yet very alert. She stared at me every now and then with a confident smile saying "look what I got!". I could only smile back and lay down near the pichu, making sure they didn't get cold. I knew that they had to be moved to their real nest as soon as possible. They couldn't stay here overnight, unless they would be sleeping against me. But that wouldn't do any good, because I wasn't the daddy of those pichu and I would give them my scent, making them see me as dad.

The pichu were all in good condition and they were incredibly small. About one sixth the size of their mother, maybe smaller... If I would pick them up they would all easily fit inside my hand... One of them was white instead of pale-yellow. This could be normal: when a pikachu had a big nest it could be the fur wasn't fully grown yet. The pichu would get the normal yellow color within a couple of days.

Overall the delivery was a big success, and the reunion with her mate was heartwarming to see. After they had sniffed each other he simply laid down next to her and the children, and immediately started licking them to make sure they would see him as the father and not someone else. Just before dark I insisted them to move to the pikachu nest. After a successful move I wouldn't see the little rodents for a week or three, where they would mainly eat, sleep and grow. They would gain twice their length and about twice their weight and come out as normal pichu, still growing rapidly. Already looking forward to see them coming outside to play, I laid myself down into my new sleeping bag, which I had exchanged with Oak outside the colony. He had wondered why in heaven a pikachu had given birth inside it, and so did I. But the main thing was it happened and everything was alright. He wished me good night (it was almost dark) and I headed back to the colony. I laid down into my new bag and as if he knew Lukas joined me. He stepped inside my bag but then hesitated.

"Pika... Pikachu?" he asked me.

"Yes, the smell is gone. I know... But we couldn't really sleep inside that old bag, couldn't we?" I smiled. Lukas yawned and snuggled against my face with his cheeks. He gave me a little lick on my cheek and sighed deep, getting ready to sleep. I laid my hand around him and gently rubbed against him. He released some affectionate sparks from his cheeks which tickled against my own cheek. I smiled and rubbed a bit more. Lukas gently purred. Yes, we had a really special bond. And it was growing stronger every day, that was for sure...

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><p><em>Oh, and for the people out there saying "Pokémon lay eggs!": I don't really think they do. Ever seen a mouse lay eggs? I didn't. It's just something Nintendo came up with to make this suitable for children. So please stop saying that. Make your own story where a pikachu gets a egg and a pichu. I highly encourage you to do so. :)<em>


	12. New things to overcome

_Hello everyone! Another chapter of Life as a pikachu! I would like to thank Pichufan for beta-reading and P1kachu (yes, THE p1kachu! Can you believe it?) for his permission for... You'll see (^_^). If you haven't read his stories, I highly recommend you do, after you've read this chapter of course! ^_^_

_I've added something new in this chapter. When a pikachu is talking in italic, it means it talks in Pika-language which means Maurice is unable to understand it, but the pikachu and pichu are (of course). I have to work it out a bit more, I'll promise I'll do that in the next chapter and later in the story.  
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_Without further ado, let's get started! I hope you guys like it! Leave a review or if you're too shy to leave one send a PM. :)_

_Update: Openoffice removed the horizontal bars. Bad program, don't use it.  
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><p>I opened my eyes. Playfully I jumped up, looking around. Mommy and daddy weren't around, but my brothers were. They were also awake and playing. We were waiting for... We don't really know. We have been in our nest ever since I can remember. Mom doesn't want us to go outside. She has shown us our nest though, showing us the way around to the playroom. There were more pichu there so we could play. But there was more... Mom and dad were gone often while we were playing. As soon they returned, I could smell all different scents on them... I can't really bring home what it is, but it smells nice. Other pikachu also came into the playroom regularly, and they all had different smells. Some of them had even more strange smells on them, like they played with some different pokémon. Oh well, I was sure I would find out what it was soon. Although we weren't allowed outside yet, dad had told us we could take a look outside soon, if we sticked to the other pichu closely. That was the only thing that mattered. I wanted to see what was outside... Sometimes I could smell scents coming from outside, together with wind flowing through the nest.<p>

But for now, we were stuck inside our nest until our parents would come and give us food. About a week ago we were allowed to taste a small piece of an apple and they were simply DELICIOUS! I love fruit more than anything, but milk is also nice. Mom is perfect, almost like made for us. She grooms us, feeds us milk, while dad teaches us to control our electricity as far we can. Back in the playroom another pichu had showed us how he could control his electricity... I wished I could do that... But dad assured me I also would be able to do that one day. Mom remained silent about it... Probably because she felt tired or she wasn't really good at electric attacks. But never mind that, I still enjoyed being with them. I could take my brothers fairly good, and I wasn't having any trouble playing with them, even if they were boys. My parents had named me "Cammy", after a famous helper of the big "Dallas" and his mate "Electra". They had saved the world more than once, at least, so they told me... I didn't know and I didn't care much about them. I hadn't met them. Rumours said that Dallas was leader of this colony, but that was proved wrong after we met the colony leader. He came checking us when we woke up one day. He didn't really care about us, but he mainly wanted to know how mom was. After he ensured she was ok, he left and I didn't see him much after that. Sometimes in the playroom he would say "hi" to everyone, but that's about it.

I was tackled by my brother Grefas, which had spotted I woke up. We romped a bit before mom came in. She glanced at me for a second, and then asked us to stop. Dad appeared through the opening.

"Guys, we're going outside!" he announced. We cheered. New things to smell and see! My heart started beating quicker, I was so excited! Finally I would see something of "outside", whatever that might be. Dad turned around, quickly followed by my brothers. My mom stood in the opening.

"You coming?" she smiled.

"YES!" I almost shouted. I quickly darted after my brothers. We had to go a long way. I noticed slowly yet surely, the tunnel was getting... Brighter... Until we went around a corner and I was almost blinded by a big light. I squeezed my eyes shut against it, and I saw that my brothers had to do the same. As soon my eyes got used to the light, I saw... Anything... So much... Around us, there were... Brown things with big green stuff... It made a funny sound in the wind. As soon we got out of the nest entrance, the ground also turned green. I immediately recognized the scent I had smelled inside. So this was it... It was green... Longer on some places and It tickled my belly. I looked around and spotted other pikachu. They were doing all kind of things... I saw one in a tree, saw some in a clearing...

I looked around. There was so much to check and investigate. But one thing I hadn't notice would soon scare the hell out of me. A shadow appeared over and around me and my brothers. I looked around to see where it was coming from and I got scared. Before me was standing a giant... Giant! He was so much bigger than I was... He could easily grab me and... And...

I backed off, and bumped into the belly of my father, who smiled. Soon, I saw a pikachu on the giant, and multiple pichu standing next to him. Both he and the pikachu watched me with interest. He gently came close. I wanted to flee, but my mom and dad stopped me and my brothers. I suddenly saw Corynn and her mother next to us. Corynn hadn't backed off, but was still standing next to her mother. Corynn was a pichu about the same age as me. She was born two nights later and we were good friends.

"Don't be scared of him!" a pichu said. The pichu group gathered around me. I already knew them from the playroom, but I had never seen them outside. They gathered around me and wanted me to follow. They immediately wanted to get me close to the giant, which was still gazing at me. He said something to the pikachu on him, but thanks to my ears I could hear it perfectly.

"She's STILL white... Hmmm..." he said mainly meant for the pikachu on him.

"_Yes, she is... Strange..." _the pikachu replied.

What did he mean by that? Why was it strange I was white? My mother told me I would be yellow, just as my brothers, but that it would take some time. This giant was scary, and also rude to me... I didn't like him. I just didn't.

The other pichu had meanwhile convinced my brothers to get close to that giant. My dad also pushed me.

"Go ahead, he won't hurt you." he said gently, smiling at me. I didn't want to go close... I didn't want to get close to something that scary...

"No..." I whispered... "NO! I don't want to...! Please..." I said while I wanted my dad to pick me up. I didn't feel very safe with HIM near me. I wanted him to... Go away. Meanwhile my brothers were pushed towards the giant, which was now gently crouching for them. He held out his hands for them, so they could examine him. I could see them checking him, and then squeak happily as he tickled them on their belly and even lifted them into the air! I was happy I wasn't close to him, I would surely have screamed when I was up there. My dad had picked my up and held me against his own body. That felt good and made me feel safe. I watched as my brothers were allowed to examine him all over, checking on him while the pikachu up there helped them to move along him. Apparently, it was something harder to do than just normal walking. But soon they were on him, standing right next to his head. They all could fit on one side of him, while the pikachu stood on the other side. Then he left, together with the pichu and some pikachu. I watched mom and dad.

"He's scary!" I said while I buried my face in my dad's fur.

"That's what the other pichu thought when they met him, but he's a real nice fella..." my dad said gently to me. My mom looked a bit sad at me. I didn't know why, but it gave me chills... Then she came for me and smiled. Dad put me down.

"You can just explore if you'd like. We will introduce him to you later. He's your babysitter-"

"I don't need a babysitter!" I said angrily.

"Yes, Cammy, you do!" dad said on a stern tone. "I already explained you that outside, here, there are much dangers. He knows those dangers. He will protect you from it and he will help you explore everything safely. And he isn't the only babysitter, so don't worry about it. There are also... Ehm... Normal pikachu to help you. You can stick to them if you'd like. But I want you to try to friend with him, alright?" I watched my dad. He was smiling gently at me and his tone had changed to a more gently one.

"I... I will try..." I said slowly...

"Trust me, we also doubted if he could be baby-sitter. But he's doing a awesome job, better than every pikachu thought." dad said. "He may be big, but he really knows how to handle you like we do. Lukas says he's always gentle for you, even when you shock him."

"Lukas...?" I stumbled.

"The pikachu on his shoulder. He and Maurice, which is his name, seem to get along pretty well." dad said.

"I'm gonna check up on them..." mom said. "I just want to be sure..." she said while taking off in the direction the pichu went in. Dad looked at me.

"You can just explore this area for now, I'll try to introduce you to him soon. Don't worry, I'll be with you when we do." he said while gently rubbing his cheek against mine. I could feel energy flowing between us and I smiled. I felt all energetic all of a sudden and I wanted to explore... And I did. Under dad's supervision I could check on everything I wanted, so I did. The green stuff on the ground was called "grass" and the brown things were called "trees". Some trees had some kind of red stuff on them, which I identified as apples, from which I had one the other day. I sure had to remember this place for apples. I moved on to check the colony further, until it was time to eat. Dad got me an apple. I purred happily as we both ate it when I suddenly saw that giant again. He was running along the colony, chased by a horde of pichu and pikachu. Me and my father watched him... When he suddenly tripped. He landed, using his hands and arms to prevent him getting hurt. He turned on his back, tried to get up but was caught by the horde of pikachu and pichu, which pinned him to the ground, got all over him, and all squealed excitedly.

He raised his arms, indicating he gave up, laughed, and stroked some pikachu and pichu. They all got off him and went back to the playground. He got up, shook all the sand from him and looked around, spotted me and dad, and came straight for us. There was no doubt, he was coming for me. I stopped eating my apple and dove behind dad to hide myself. But he wasn't fooled by that. He came for me.

"Cammy?" he said on a very gently tone. I moved my head around my dad, which chuckled and took a step aside. He had moved towards me and was lying on his belly, making him look a lot smaller and a lot less scary. I took a step forward, but wanted to stay with my dad. He crawled closer to me and moved his paw forward, close to me. He smiled towards me.

"No need to be scared of me..." he said gently. I sniffed his paws concentrated... This was that strange scent I knew... He wiggled his paws and I quickly stepped backwards, but as soon he stopped I was very interested in him... The smell of other pichu and also my brothers made me more confident.

"Alright, don't get scared of me." he said. He sat down instead of lying on his belly and he crossed his legs so I could easily climb them, which I did, followed closely by my dad. Although he was a lot bigger now, I wasn't really scared with dad around. Maybe he wasn't all that bad. But calling me strange because I was white was... Not very nice of him. But there was no time to think about that, because I felt his paws under my own arms. He lifted me in the air and held me in front of him. My dad quickly jumped and stood next to his head, watching me. The giant smiled to me and then gently pushed me against his chest, rubbing his paws against my back and tickling me gently. It felt as if my own father was holding me and soon, I was completely relaxed. I closed my eyes and enjoyed his body heat, which felt so nice. I opened my eyes just in time to see dad jumping down. I squeaked, I didn't want him to go! I squirmed and attempted to break free, which didn't work. I panicked. He didn't release me... He wouldn't release me... Panic rose until I heard his voice.

"Cammy, relax... Your dad is still here in my lap, you don't have to panic... Calm yourself down..." he said. What? Would dad really be there? Just as I wondered that, I felt he moved me around. I was now facing... Air. The ground was gone under me and my feet were standing on his hand. I watched with interest. Yes, dad was still standing watching me. I sighed to myself. I decided to look around a bit. On this height I could see much further, and things got even better when the giant stood up, still holding my back against his chest. I could see so many things... I could see my brothers and my mother in the distance, I could see much more grass and trees...

"My name's Maurice, by the way." I suddenly heard. But I couldn't only hear it, I could also feel vibrations against my back as he spoke.

"_I'm Cammy..."_ I said while looking straight up inside his eyes.

"Nice to meet you, Cammy." he said while stroking my head gently. Then he grabbed me firmly and put me down right next to dad. When I stood next to him I felt all little and small, and somewhere in my body, I could feel fear. But this time I knew he wouldn't hurt me and I could control my feelings a bit better. Dad patted my back.

"See? Nothing to be scared of." he said smiling. I nodded and smiled while Maurice took off to the pichu, saying "See you later!" while I could see him walking towards the other pichu.

The rest of the day I could spend outside instead of inside. After we ate I had cuddled up to mom for a nap, and after that I had just explored and explored and explored. There were so many things I could see, that I could smell and that I could hear... I could also see other pokémon flying... Or even a snake. Although I could see him, other pikachu quickly chased him away, including Maurice. He had told us to stay close to the pikachu which were standing around us, and then helped chasing the snake away. Little did I know it was a snake, but the pikachu would happily teach me that they meant danger. They could easily eat something like me, like I ate berries. This scared me a bit, but knowing that others would protect me, I was sure it wouldn't be a big problem. Now I understood what dad meant with a babysitter... And what they would do for me. They helped me a lot today... If I wanted to nap or was hungry... Mom was near us all day helping us but she mainly let the babysitters do stuff. She had told me I had to get used to that.

And so, when the big ball of light turned orange and the sky was not blue but red, I moved back into the next together with my family. It had been a very interesting day and dad told us that if we were good, we could go out tomorrow again. I was already looking forward to it, while I cuddled up against my brothers. We had played a very long time, chasing each other and other pichu. We had explored a tree trunk together, which appeared to be hollow and looked like our nest from the inside. We had eaten apples, we had... Done so much nice things... I wanted it had never ended. And close to my brothers, mom and dad I happily fell asleep, dreaming of anything I would see tomorrow...

The next day would bring much of the same, and I loved it. We could explore another side of the colony today, and this side was even more interesting. Other scents, other trees and other differences made it so different from yesterday that I was busy exploring all day, together with Corynn. We both had a great time when we were picked up by Maurice, telling us we wandered too far and that we shouldn't go into the forest alone. He had picked us up completely by surprise, leaving me no time to get scared or something. That felt very good and we had fun trying to grab each other's paw while he was holding us. Another night came, and I was learning something every day. I even played shock tag with my brothers and I had released my first discharge! But immediately after that I felt very tired... Happily I was helped by Lukas who had come up to me, touched my cheek with his own and powered me up, like he did with all pichu. When he did it, I was suddenly bursting with energy and continued to explore the area.

The third day started with some kind of explanation about berries... But I didn't even listen. There was so much to see just outside the colony that I couldn't pay attention. I even caught some sort of little bug, which tasted great! It made me feel very confident of myself.

When we returned to our nest that evening, I felt very sleepy and very happy. I moved inside the nest with my parents and my brothers, and wanted to fall asleep, until my mom called me and asked me to come along. She wanted to show me something.

We went outside and moved to the edge of the forest.

"What is it, mom?" I said happily. I looked behind me, and looked at... No one there... Where was mom? I looked around and wandered back to the nest... Although... Where was it...? Where was the entrance? Panic rushed through me, as I looked around in panic. There weren't pikachu outside anymore which I could ask for help.

"Mom?" I shouted. Then I waited. And waited. No response.

"MOM! DAD?" I shouted again. Nothing, until I heard a rustle close by. A creature appeared... It was Maurice.

"Cammy? What are you doing here alone?" he said highly surprised. "You're supposed to be in the nest! It's dangerous outside at night, specially for you alone." I backed off unhappily... I didn't want to see him right now, but maybe he could help me. He must have heard me shouting.

"_I can't find the entrance of the nest... And mom is gone..." _I said with hanging ears. Maurice smiled.

"I'll bring you back. But no more nightly adventures, understood?" he said. I nodded as he picked me up. He moved to his own nest, which I had seen only once... I saw Lukas lying inside it.

"Luk, I need your help. Can you get Cammy's parents for me?" he asked. Lukas nodded, jumped out of Maurice' nest and went straight for the entrance, with Maurice and me on his heels. He dove inside and was gone. Maurice sat down as he waited for my parents to come out.

"If you ever need me, just call for me, alright? Don't hesitate. But you shouldn't go outside alone at night, it's dangerous..." he said to me. I nodded again and waited for my mother or father to come out.

We waited for Lukas. Maurice was holding me and he was all nice and warm... I heard him sighing and then Lukas came out, followed by my mother.

"Mom!" I said happily and I was put down in front of her and immediately ran for her and hugged her tightly. Maurice said something to my mother and then wanted to leave. Mom turned around and moved back inside the nest, and I followed her. But when we entered, mom turned around.

"Go away, Cammy." she said and she pushed me out roughly. I sat down in front of the entrance and saw mom disappear inside the nest.

"Mom?" I said while jumping up and following her. Inside I could easily trace her. I had walked this route quite much already and I knew the way to our own nest. Just before I could enter it I was stopped by my mother. She sighed deeply.

"I said, go AWAY CAMMY!" she said again and grabbed me in my scurf. She bit down hard and I squealed as she bit my neck in such a way it hurt me.

"Mom, I wanna go sleep! What are you doing?" I squeaked. "Put me down!" But it was no use. She moved back to the colony entrance and released me outside.

Completely surprised by what just happened, I ran after her again, back to my nest, but this time, I was stopped halfway by another pikachu.

"Get out...!" he growled. "You don't belong here!"

"But..." I said slowly... "I want to go back to mom... and... Daddy...?"

"They aren't here, get out!" he growled.

"But she is in our nes-" I was tackled hard by the pikachu and I flew through the tunnel, slammed into the side and fell on the ground. I had pain everywhere... I started to cry... I only wanted to go back to my mother! And to my father! Why was everyone so mean to me all of a sudden?

Some pikachu came, hearing the noise I was making. Some of them looked kind of worried, but as soon they saw the pikachu that attacked me, they got angry at me. I got up slowly and looked very scared at them. What was happening? Why couldn't I go back to mom and dad? One of the pikachu came closer and grabbed me in my scruff again and dropped me outside, before moving in again. I started to cry. Why was everyone so mean? I didn't understand it, when suddenly a pikachu came outside.

"Why are you still here?" he shouted at me. "GO AWAY!" he shouted even harder. I looked scared at him and backed off. I kept backing off as he slowly but surely and very scary moved closer to me, watching me with an angry glare. I turned around and ran, ran for my life. I suddenly saw Maurice, ran right past him, with the pikachu close after me. I ran to the colony edge and stopped, knowing that I wasn't allowed outside of this area. I turned around. Maurice and Lukas came running for me and stood behind the pikachu that was chasing me. I looked at both of them, Lukas looked angry and Maurice just looked worried and surprised. The pikachu growled at me and moved closer, and came dangerously close.

"_Go!" _he simply said.

"_I can't go outside...! That's... Dangerous!" _I said. I saw Maurice looking angrily at the pikachu, but he was stopped by Lukas which pulled his jeans and tried to get him away. Unfortunately, it worked and he went away. My last resort was gone, and it only needed one firm growl to chase me away from this colony. I ran, ran for my life, not knowing where I went, not knowing where I would end up, not looking at any dangers. When I stopped I sat down against a tree... And I looked around.

It was dark, it was scary, it was cold... I started crying. Everyone had been nice to me and all of a sudden, I was... Rejected? Why? What did I do wrong? I did not know what to do next and cried...

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><p>Moving back to my sleeping bag, I looked at Lukas.<p>

"What the hell was that good for?" I said to him. Lukas looked at me, shrugged like he didn't know and looked to my sleeping bag, wanting to go sleep. But that wasn't going to happen until he explained this all to me. I held him in front of me, shook him a bit to make sure he was listening, and then asked him again. Lukas looked a bit scared at my response.

"Pika. Pikachu, pikachu-pi."he said. How great, but I could not understand pika-language. Cammy was chased away.

"Did she do something wrong?" I asked Lukas. He shook his head.

"Was she... Oh no... She wasn't abandoned, wasn't she?" I asked. Immediately Lukas nodded.

"Shit..." I said slowly... "We gotta find her. She won't survive alone out there." I said while packing some stuff, but Lukas stopped me.

"Pika Pikachu-pi! Pika Pikachu-chu-pika!" he said, looking at me with a determined face, while preventing me from going into the forest.

"You don't want me to go look for her?" I asked him. He nodded.

"Pikachu-pi-pikachu." he said. Trying all my learned pika-skills I tried to understand what he said. But it just didn't work out.

"I don't know why you don't want me to go... Is it colony related?" I said. Lukas nodded to me. He pointed at the nest, said something more, imitated the elder, and then did something else I couldn't really bring home.

"The elder doesn't want abandoned pichu in the colony." I said. Lukas happily nodded. He was surprised I understood him so well, but after almost a month you slowly develop a sixth sense for understanding them. Learning pikachu language was a slow process, but just your feeling could translate a lot.

"Great, so she's just going to die out there. Don't you feel guilty or something?" I said. "How can she help she's white?" I said and suddenly understood it. She was abandoned because she was a white pichu. In the wild, mothers would always abandon or kill cubs that were different or not strong enough so the others had a better chance of surviving. Cammy was unlucky to be different colored than the rest of the pichu, making her automatically the weakest in the eyes of her mother, resulting in her getting abandoned and thrown out of the colony. Now I understood it, it all made sense. Yet I couldn't get my mind to accept this cruel fact. I sighed deeply, got into my bag and lay down on my back, Lukas on my right. He nuzzled my ear, and gently purred when he curled up against me. Moving another pikachu out of the way, which was lying all the way down my bag, I looked at the stars. I already knew this would be a sleepless night. I would be only thinking about Cammy, that was for sure. She was a cute pichu, just like the rest of them. Scared for me, which made her even cuter than she already was. Although she wasn't the first pichu to be scared of me and probably not the last...

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><p>I perked my ears up. What was happening around me? I could hear bushes rustle. It was like I was being watched from everywhere... I didn't feel safe. My instinct told me to curl up into a ball which I did. I shivered. What should I do? What was I going to do? Where must I go...? I didn't know and I thought about my nest, where it was all nice and warm and I could cuddle up against my mother, father and brothers... But I wasn't in my nest, but here, somewhere in this forest. I didn't know the way back... I didn't know where to go, I was completely lost, and I was tired...<p>

I uncurled and started to walk. Maybe I would get somewhere. Suddenly I heard something in the trees. I looked up and saw a bird sitting on a branch.

"Hoothoot!" it said. It gazed straight at me. "Hoothoot!" it said again, as it took off and immediately dove for me. I didn't know exactly how, but I jumped out of the way just in time and started running. I dove under bushes, past branches, hoping I would soon lose that scary thing! It worked... He lost track of me and soon I was alone again...

Tears formed in my eyes... I knew that I would get hurt if I didn't find something fast... I had to... Get back to my colony... But how...? Then I remembered what Maurice had said. I shouldn't hesitate to call him... But would he come...? I now knew that shouting would result in being attacked by something... I decided to shout. I wouldn't make it to the next day anyway if I didn't find my nest...

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><p>I was still awake. It has been about thirty minutes ago that I wanted to sleep, but I just couldn't. Although I knew this was typical behavior for wild pikachu, I still couldn't get my thoughts off Cammy. The worst was that Lukas didn't seem to mind at all, but I couldn't blame him for it. If this was what he had learned from his parents, it was just normal behavior. I sighed deeply. Lukas moved, opened his eyes and looked at me. He stood up, balanced on his two hind legs and placed his other two on my chest.<p>

"Pika pikachu pi?" he asked.

"I can't sleep... You see, I'm thinking about Cammy." I said.

"Pika pikachu..." Lukas said with droopy ears. After I had told him that Cammy couldn't help it that she was abandoned, and that he had to imagine himself being abandoned for being another color... He felt a bit guilty. He didn't mind though, Cammy was gone for a while already and she was probably eaten already, if not close to being eaten. Yes, Lukas was convinced they were too late to save her.

Suddenly, I heard something far away. It was a high pitched shout, sounding as... A pichu... Lukas also perked his ears immediately up. He listened closely. Knowing that his hearing was probably ten times as good as mine, I waited.

"Is it Cammy?" I asked him. It would be quite a coincidence if this wasn't Cammy. It just must be her... Lukas nodded. He then pointed at me. "Pika-pi!" he said.

"Me? What's with me?" I asked him. He shook his head, and then shouted softly like Cammy had done.

"Pika-pi!" he said.

"She's shouting for me?" I said. Lukas nodded quickly.

"Well then, let's go! Fuck the colony rules, I'll get her back, even if the colony doesn't like it." I said to Lukas, which hesitated, but followed me. I made sure the sleeping pikachu were covered in my bag to prevent them from being an easy target and then set off. I saw Volt shaking his head like he was saying "I wouldn't do that if I was you" but I didn't care. My feelings for the pichu were much bigger than the feeling of being loyal to some stupid rules. Running through the forest, I stopped. I had heard the pichu shouting from somewhere, but I didn't know where.

"CAMMY?" I shouted. It took only a small time before there was a reply. Lukas immediately pointed me to a direction. I knew we had to move quickly. A shouting pichu would sure attract predators. After a while, I stopped again. Then Lukas jumped on the ground and sniffed it, looked around, and immediately took off. He had picked up her scent, I guessed. It didn't take long before Lukas lost the trail however. He stopped, looked around confused, sniffed the ground a couple of times, and then jumped my shoulder.

"Lost her?" I said. Lukas nodded.

"CAMMY?" I shouted again. I almost jumped as she shouted from nearby. She was very close, I could locate her myself now. I walked to the direction of the sound.

"Cammy?" I said gently, looking around if I could see anything white. She appeared from under a bush, under the dirt, scratches all over her, and tears coming from her eyes. I sat down next to her right away, picked her up, and gently held her on my chest. The pichu cried, and we arrived not a moment too soon, because I could see a hoothoot and a noctowl sitting above me, looking down at her and Lukas. They quickly took off after I spotted them though.

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><p>I was picked up by him, and I cried immediately.<p>

"_I want to go h-home...!" _I cried. He held me against his chest in such a nice way, and I felt safer already. Lukas was on his shoulder, giving me worried glares. I looked at him, but then held my face against Maurice's sweater again, enjoying his warmth and his attention, while he slowly and gently stroked my back and my head.

"Everything will be alright, sweetie. Don't cry..." he said gently to me. That was easier said than done. Everything wouldn't be alright. Everything would be worse... My own mother had rejected me... Thinking about that made my ears droop, and I looked at Maurice.

"_But what ab- about the c-c-colony...?" _I said.

"I don't know what you just said... Sorry..." he said to me with his ever-gentle voice. It was a voice that made me feel safer, made me feel like there was nothing wrong, nothing at all. Like all problems were gone if you listened to it.

"...but you don't have to worry. I'll take you back to the colony and we'll see what happens. If they attempt to chase you away or even kill you, you don't have to worry, because you're staying right here with me. Well, not here..." he said while looking around.

"Let's go, I don't want to stay here longer with you and Lukas... It's dangerous for both of you." he said while he took off. He got his... Thing out of his pockets, tapped it a couple of times and started walking, holding me close.

"Oh shit... No- NO!" he said. "Not now, please!"

"_What is it?" _I said together with Lukas.

"The battery is empty. And I forgot to place that solar powered thing today... I cannot recharge it..." he said. I didn't understand anything of what he just said. Solar powered what? Battery? Recharge? But Lukas seemed to understand and drooped his ears.

"You know the way back, Lukas?" he asked Lukas. Lukas shook his head slowly. He didn't really know which direction we had gone. But couldn't he just smell the scent they had just created? Apparently not, considering Maurice asked him the same. Lukas shook his head.

"Great..." Maurice said. "Ehm... Let's see... We came from there... Didn't we?" Lukas also looked around. The problem wasn't to follow the scent, but that the scent seemed to come from everywhere. They had been here more than once, and they had left scents every time they did. And following the wrong one could result in going somewhere completely different.

"Wait, idea." Maurice suddenly said. "Lukas, come." Lukas came close as Maurice held his device in front of the pikachu. "Stick your finger in this hole here..." he said. Lukas did so.

"Alright, can you feel it takes electricity from you?" Maurice asked. Lukas shook his head.

"Hmmm, try to give it some energy. Don't give it too much, but do it slowly." Lukas nodded. Maurice held the phone and watched it as Lukas sparked a bit.

"DING" the device announced.

"Please attach charger... alright, give it a bit more..." Maurice stated. Lukas sparked a bit.

"Charging... Hey it works! 2%... 11%...25%... - HOLY CRAP - 46% - 59% - 74% - 89% - Charged, please remove charger..." Maurice said with big eyes. "You just charged the whole thing in less than 10 seconds!" he said.

Lukas smiled. "Pika-pikachu!" he said happily, removing his finger from the tiny hole.

"And it works..." Maurice said while he looked and pressed some buttons.

"Alright, I'll use you next time to charge this thing. I don't know if it does any good to the battery, but it sure goes a lot quicker." he stated.

"Let's see... Colony!" he said and I watched as the device has some sort of arrow pointing into a certain direction.

"Let's go, come Luk" he said while holding his arm in front of him so Lukas could jump him easily.

After a while we arrived back at the colony. Without the trees taking away the light of the stars and moon, it was a lot brighter and I could recognize the colony. Maurice didn't take me to the nest though, instead, he took me to his own nest. I pointed at the nest entrance, but Maurice shook his head.

"Remember what happened?" he said. Yes, that made sense.

"You'll sleep in my sleeping bag with me tonight." he said while putting me inside his own nest, which was called "bag" for some reason. His scent was very strong in here, and he quickly laid down next to me.

I was unsure what I should do... There were others of the colony here... I could smell them... But Maurice simply pulled me towards him and placed me right against his face, which I immediately hugged. I squealed softly and happily and placed my both paws around his face as far as I could, while I rubbed my cheek against him. He smiled, wrapped his hand around me and cuddled me against him. I felt warmth flowing from him to me when Lukas appeared and snuggled next to Maurice' face and next to me. He looked at me, but then he came close and wrapped his tail around me.

"Awww, Lukas... You look so cute like this..." Maurice said. "Changed your mind about abandoning pichu, didn't you?" he said. Lukas looked at me, and then back at Maurice and nodded, before closing his eyes and drifting to sleep, a content smile on his face. Maurice grabbed both of us and placed us closer against him and then moved the blanket over us so we would stay warm. Finally he wrapped his arm around me and his other around Lukas, before sighing and moving through my fur with his nose. It felt so good... I moved a bit closer to him... He felt just as my dad, but... Bigger... And more cuddly. I wanted this to never stop... But it stopped as I fell asleep, enjoying the sensation of the human gently cuddling me...

* * *

><p>I looked at Cammy. She had fellen asleep and was now resting against my neck and my chin. Lukas was still awake and also watching the little pichu now she had fallen asleep, his tail wrapped at the side that was unprotected by me. Around his tail and his body, I had my arm which stretched along his entire body and was now scratching his ears.<p>

"We couldn't let her die, couldn't we..." I whispered to Lukas while I gently stroked Cammy with my other hand.

"Pika pikachu..." he said while shaking 'no' with his head.

"You know, even when the colony doesn't accept her anymore, I'll pretend to be her dad... I don't care..." I said to him. "She deserves a good life just as the other pichu... If they really don't want her, I already got a backup plan and a backup plan for my backup plan..." I said. Lukas watched me with a "userious" face.

"Pika-pikachu?" he asked me.

"Well, I'm sure professor Oak has room for a pichu like her..." I said. "I'll be going back to my own family in two days to see them again. I'll come back, don't worry..." I said as I saw Lukas pulling a scary face. He didn't want me to leave, he liked me way too much (and I liked him way too much) to leave this colony already. And besides Lukas you had the pichu and the pikachu that also liked me. No, it would be a quick family visit (mainly my mother), and then I would go again. Maybe I'd stay one night, but no more.

"Would you like to come along?" I asked Lukas.

"Pika?" he said surprised. "Pika pikachu..." he said as his ears drooped.

"Don't worry, you got me. People won't harm you." I said. "I think you'll find it very interesting." I said to him while smiling.

"Pika pikachu." he said...

"You have to think about it. Alright then, I'll hear it from you. Cammy is coming, because I think she has to find a new colony or rather new parents." I said. "I think I already know the perfect pikachu to take care of her as long I'm here..." Lukas looked at me with an interested look, but then yawned.

"Yep, sleeptime." I said while I got myself comfortable and pulled Lukas against my cheek. He purred softly and licked my cheek before he closed his eyes and fell asleep, just as I did. Just before I did I took one more look at the little pichu that was sleeping near me. She looked so cute, even with a different color as normal pichu... I closed my eyes, cuddled close against her and Lukas and felt asleep.


	13. The last day

_Hello everyone! Another part of my story! I'm not unhappy with it, although I want it to be a bit more action packed and a bit more quick-moving. But I seem to fail at that very much since I always get stuck at a certain part, making it longer and more detailed. Please forgive me! :)_

_Second, I'm looking for someone that wants to make a front cover for this story. I suck at drawing. The best pikachu I ever made was one at Draw Something, and it really didn't look like one. You could tell it by the tail and cheeks, but that was about it. :P So, if you're good at drawing, like this story, and want to make a front cover, please surprise me! I don't really have a idea for one, I only want Maurice and Lukas on it with Lukas on Maurice' shoulder. That's all. The winner can give a turn to the story he or she prefers. More action, a war, you name it. I'll come up with something.  
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_Alright, this chapter is rather sad and it's focussed a bit on Cammy. The next chapter she'll be gone from the story for a while, so enjoy her while you still can. She's a really nice pichu, really!  
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_I would like to thank Pichufan and Bloodstargeneral (or Bloodstargeneral and Pichufan) for the beta-reading. Please also read Bloodstars latest story!  
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* * *

><p>Early in the morning I woke up. The sun had just appeared and it was still cold outside. While I loved to sleep long in the morning, I started to wake up at sunrise since I had joined the pikachu. Not that I minded though... It was part of the lifestyle and I didn't dislike it. I moved my head and felt two warm creatures. One of them was Lukas, who was near me as usual, and the other one was a white pichu with purple or pink cheeks. They weren't pink and they weren't purple, but something in between. They were both still asleep and I watched them. Lukas had his tail wrapped around the little pichu, just as he had done last evening. It made him look like he was her actual father. It looked incredible cute...<p>

Cammy moved a bit and rubbed her head and ears against my neck in an attempt to change position. She had been sleeping peacefully all night, lying very close to me. To be precise, she was lying under my chin and against my neck, while I was lying on my side. The pichu had instinctively chosen this spot for the warmth and safety it offered her. Together with my hands, Lukas' tail and my bag, it was simply ideal spot to sleep. I felt movement. A pikachu lying inside my bag (Lukas and Cammy weren't the only ones sleeping near me) moved. I raised the upside of my bag so I could look inside. The pikachu got on his feet and shook his head. It looked funny when his ears flapped to the left and right when he did so.

"'morning!" I said smiling to him.

"ChuuuuuuuUUUUUUU..." he said while stretching himself to his full length. He shook his head again and then looked at me. He appeared to be much more awake than I thought. How they did it I didn't know, but pikachu could just be awake from the one to the other second. He slowly crawled out of my sleeping bag and then looked at Cammy.

"Pika pikachu...?" he asked, wondering what she was doing here. He was already sleeping yesterday evening, so he hadn't heard or didn't know anything about what happened. I sighed deeply. Should I tell him? How would he react? He would hear it eventually, so I decided to just tell him.

"She got abandoned yesterday eve..." I said to him. "They chased her off the colony, but I got her back..."

"Pika..." the pikachu said slowly, but then he glared angrily at Cammy. So abandoned pichu were indeed not welcome inside the colony. The pikachu took a step closer to Cammy and smelled her. Then it happened lightning fast. He raised his paw, claws extended and ready to strike, but in a defending reflex, I immediately attacked him and pushed him against the ground, away from Cammy. I got up and used my weight to hold him down. He didn't expect this at all, and I used that little time to grab his scruff and raise him into the air while I got up. I looked furiously at him.

"I hope you didn't want to kill her right in front of me." I said furiously. He just looked angry at me and at Cammy. What got into these pikachu as soon the mother had abandoned her child? Cammy and Lukas had both woke up as I had picked up the pikachu.

"If you ever get close to her again to attack her, I'll get you. And I promise you, I know some tricks to make you suffer worse than you can imagine!" I said while pinching his scruff. I knew he didn't feel this, but the humiliation of being picked up like this was already a big crack in the pride of the male. Fortunately for him, there were no other pikachu around except Lukas. Cammy looked up at me and looked at the pikachu. The pikachu just glared angrily back at her and pulled a "whatever" face. I sighed, put him down next to my bag and immediately grabbed Cammy and held her against my chest while looking down at the little creature. She stood on my hand palms and had her two forepaws against my chest. She looked at me with her two beautiful eyes. It was hard not to immediately fall in love with this pichu, your heart would just melt as soon you saw her. I could only smile while I lifted her and held her against my cheeks, which she hugged happily, closing her eyes and trying to get as close to me as she could, rubbing her cheeks against mine. All the fear she had shown for me before, all the uneasiness with me around was completely gone. Yes, if I would adopt her, which looked very likely after the response of the pikachu, she would be a perfect pet pokémon. Yet, she had much to learn, and she still had to grow a lot. She was only ten centimeters tall, which was still small. She would grow the next weeks until she reached her average of twenty-five centimeters, although the pokédex said 0.3m. I had told Oak he should contact the pokédex manufacturer to change that, because I had never seen a pichu that big. The tallest I had ever seen was twenty-seven centimeters... The pokédex probably rounded it up.

I placed her on my left shoulder. She stood on them, but almost fell off when I started moving. Lukas got on my other shoulder and smiled at Cammy.

"Pika pikachu!" he said to her.

"Pichu pi...?" Cammy said.

"Pika pikachu!" Lukas said. "Pi-pi-ka".

"Pi-hi-hi-hiiiiii... CHU!" Cammy said while flying back and forth on my shoulder, barely able to stand on it. I stopped her, preventing a painful fall. The colony was waking up and I decided I would do some last training with the pichu today, at least, as soon they came out of the nest. Before that, I was getting some food for me and Lukas, and for... Cammy... Problem. Pichu couldn't just life on fruit only. She needed milk, and preferably mother milk. But that wouldn't happen, at least, not here. So I had to find something different...

I decided that, for this last day, she had to life with only water and fruit. I would get some berries for her, and I would made sure she drank enough to at least make her not feel hungry... I would give her some milk tomorrow morning when I would drop in at Oak's laboratory. Lukas was now standing on my left shoulder near Cammy and showed her how to stand properly on my shoulder. He was already used to it and everything had to be learned. I couldn't help her, I didn't know how to stand on someone's shoulder... Until I felt a pain in my left shoulder. Cammy's nails had pierced through my sweater and had reached my shoulder. Cammy however was a lot more stable when she'd done that. I smiled towards her and she looked quite happy now she stood firmly on my shoulder.

I left the colony with both 'chus, heading towards the place with berries and apple trees Lukas had showed me earlier. I just wanted Cammy to eat in peace, and not with a couple of angry pikachu around her that wanted to kill her. I felt really bad about it and I also felt sorry for Cammy. It must certainly hurt for the pichu to be rejected that way. But the good news was: She still had me. And if I (or rather: she) had some luck, she would have two lovely parents tomorrow which could take care of her while I was still at the colony.

"Pika pikachu?" Lukas said.

"We're going to get some food..." I said to him. "I can't feed Cammy milk so she has to get something different for today..." Lukas turned his head oblique and looked at me.

"Pika...?" he asked.

"Haha..." I laughed. "We humans can take care of anything." I smiled at him. "I will adopt Cammy from now on."

"Chu...?" (adopt?)

"Adopting someone is taking care of him or her instead of the original mother or father. Cammy's parents don't want her, so I now take care of her." I said to him, forgetting Cammy was standing right next to me. She sighed deeply and looked very sad at the ground.

"Awww, don't be sad..." I said while I gently wrapped my hand around her, plucked her off my shoulder and held her in front of me.

"You'll be alright, I promise." I smiled at the pichu.

"Pi-chuuuuuuuu..." she whined. "Pichu-pichu-piiiii... mom and my brothers? They were all so nice to me and I want to get back to them! Please bring me back...!" she said with droopy ears and a very sad voice.

"I can't bring you back, sweetie. They will try to kill you... How much I would like and love to bring you back, I just can't..." I said.

"But why are they so mean to me...?" she said.

"Because..." I said while suddenly realising I could understand her. I stopped, looked around, looking between the bushes and the trees and on the branches. Lukas looked confused at me.

"Why did you stop?" he asked.

"Espeon is here..." I said, looking behind me and around me...

"Ooohhh, very nice..." I heard inside my head. "You got me quicker than I expected."

"I don't have you yet, I don't have a clue where you are..." I thought while looking around.

"I wanted to sneak up to you..." she said inside my head... "Let's see if you can discover me before I get you."

"Challenge accepted..." I chuckled inside my head.

"Maurice...?" I heard Cammy saying. "What are you doing...?"

"Looking for Espeon... She's here somewhere sneaking up to us. If we catch her before she catches us we can have her breakfast." I said.

"I want milk!" Cammy said happily, her face beaming and happily looking at me as if she expected me to get her milk just like that. I sighed.

"Sorry, no milk today Cammy... Tomorrow you'll get it after we get to the laboratory."

"Laboratory? What's that?" she said.

"You'll see it tomorrow Cammy, it's too hard to explain right now." I smiled, looking around.

"And what if I find you first...?" Espeon asked my telepathically.

"Dunno, you can get an extra apple." I said with a foul grin.

"Jeez, you can grin very bad, just look at you." she said. Immediately I focussed on my front. If she could see me, I could see her. I took a step forward and looked at the bushes. The vegetation was dense...

I suddenly felt danger. I just sensed it. I didn't know where it came from, but I felt something bad was about to happen and immediately took a jump to my left and looked behind me. Espeon has barely missed me with a playful jump.

"I win!" I said while laughing at her.

"Damn, I almost had ya." she said chuckling.

Both Cammy and Lukas, which couldn't hear our little telepathic conversation, were shocked by my sudden jump to the left and Espeon standing right next to us. Cammy had squealed and was now hugging my face and shaking, and Lukas had almost released a thundershock. I could feel the electric field near his cheeks.

"ESPEON, DON'T EVER SCARE ME LIKE THAT AGAIN." he said while jumping down my shoulder and shaking his body to relieve the pressure.

"How'd you know I was there?" Espeon asked.

"Dunno... I just felt I was in danger and jumped aside... I don't really know where it came from..." I said while thinking about it and comforting Cammy a bit. It had indeed appeared out of nothing... How the heck was I able to sense Espeon jumping me?

"Did you do that telepathically?" I asked Espeon.

"Nope, I was actually surprised you were able to dodge my jump..." she said while we took off to the field with apples and berries.

"Who... I-i-i-s th-that...?" Cammy said shaking. The little pichu had been scared by the appearance of the Espeon and clung to my face when I had placed her back on my shoulder.

"Cammy, this is Espeon. She is also part of the colony and she helps with protecting if from the snakes and the raichu." I said. "Although the raichu have gone somewhere else..."

"Yup, that's me!" Espeon said. We arrived at the big field. The sun was in the air and there was a nice blowing wind going across the fields and through our hairs as I kneeled down near Espeon with Cammy in front of me. She wanted to be lifted again while Espeon was sniffing her and giving her a gently lick. This made Cammy completely forget all the worries and look happy at the espeon, knowing that it wouldn't hurt her.

"I like your color, Cammy..." she said happily while I lifted Cammy and walked to a tree.

"I don't like it!" Cammy said. "Mom also doesn't like it and she doesn't want to see me ever again..." she said. "And since she was mean to me, every pikachu in the colony was... Except Lukas and Maurice..."

"What? They abandoned you? Awww... Poor thing..." Espeon said, looking at me. She knew what that meant, Cammy was banned from the colony forever.

"Yes..." I said while arriving at the trees, putting Cammy down. Lukas jumped down and sat near Cammy, rubbing his cheek against hers.

"I'm sorry I was mean at you... But mom always told me to do so to abandoned pikachu... I never thought what would happen to abandoned pichu..." he said. The fact that he had seen Cammy in the forest, crying for help and warmth must have changed that a bit.

"I knew you would get eaten or something..." he said. "But I never thought it would be this bad..." he said with droopy ears.

"Lukas, you're not exactly comforting her." I said while giving him a warning glance. I climbed the tree with ease. Since I lived in the wild, I had picked this up fairly quick. I could climb trees much better than before. I got everyone some fruit, and then sat against the tree enjoying the first sunlight of the day and protectively pulled Cammy on my lap. She purred when I gently moved my fingers across her head and behind her ears, while I was feeding her small pieces of apple. Yes, Cammy was still a baby... Just three weeks old and already on her own... Alone she had no chance of survival. If she was lucky, maybe. But the amount of luck needed for this was so high that it wasn't possible. Yes, taking her to the humans would be the best solution. Lukas also purred as he devoured his apple. Espeon had laid down and was also enjoying the sunlight. It was cool outside, but not cold. In the sun it was nice and warm. I got up and moved to a berry bush, got some berries and fed them to Cammy. She looked at me, grabbed a piece of berry, sniffed it, ate it and pulled a face. She didn't like the sour taste of the berry... But that would come. All pokémon eventually loved them. I could understand: the milk from mom tasted much better and the apples were sweet...

After we had a safe breakfast I picked Cammy up and along with Lukas and Espeon we went back to the colony.

"But why is mommy so mean to me...?" Cammy suddenly asked. I sighed inside my head... How am I gonna explain this to her...?

"They are mean to you because you are a different color..." I said to her. She looked at me, thought about my answer for a moment and then continued.

"But why...? I love mom and dad... And...also my brothers..." she said slowly while looking at the ground. "And everyone seemed to dislike me since she put me outside our nest... And I don't know why..."

"Would you like to have the real explanation...?" I asked her, knowing that the answer would be yes.

"Yes!" she almost squealed.

"Alright." I said. "Listen up. Your mother still loves you. She doesn't show it to you for two reasons. One of them is your color - you are not a normal pichu, Cammy. You probably are a albino pichu." I said and stopped for a moment.

"Al... bino...?" Cammy said slowly.

"What's albino?" Lukas asked.

"Yeah, I would like to know that." Espeon said.

"A pokémon, or rather, mammal, that is albino has missing skin pigment. In other words: Your skin doesn't have any colors. It's completely white or grey. Some pieces of your skin will have other colors, but those will be mainly red or something similar to red, like pink." I said.

"But... how...?" Lukas asked. "Why is she white and her brothers are normal...? Shouldn't her brothers be white like her?"

"No. Albinism is a very, very rare genetic... Well, let's call it error that occurs at random in your DNA. You can't help it, and neither can your parents, it's genetic. Your skin... How do you call that... Oh yeah, chromosome, your skin chromosome is kind of broken. It doesn't have the right color information, making you develop as a pichu with the wrong skin color inside your mother." I said.

"Wait, wait, wait." Espeon said. "DNA? Genetic? Chromson? What is that?"

Lukas wasn't even complaining. He was just staring towards nothing in particular and continued that.

"So... I'm... Broken...?" Cammy said slowly while looking at her paws.

"Well, yes and no." I said. I stopped, sat down against a tree, realising I just had make a mistake. She wasn't broken... She was... Cammy. I held her in front of me, and forced her to watch me.

"Listen Cammy, you are not broken in any way. You are missing something. That's all. You are missing your color. But that doesn't make you weak. It doesn't make you ugly. The only thing it makes you is different. And that's what makes us all special. We're all different. Every pikachu is different, every pichu is different, and even every human is different and there are over six billion of them." I said while I smiled.

"I don't want you to feel different, although it may be hard. You are a normal pichu in everything, except you are white. That's all." I said while cuddling her close to me. "And although they don't want you, I do. I will take care for you if your mother doesn't want to." Cammy had looked a bit sad, but she cheered up when I said that and cuddled her.

"You can call me daddy." I smiled. "And I won't love you anything less because you're a different color." I said, smiling widely at the little pichu. She hugged my face and purred happily.

"Alright...?" I said while pulling a questionable face. Cammy could only hug my face, but I took that as a 'yes'. She was just a small pichu, you couldn't expect complex emotions from such a little creature yet. She was happy she had someone that cared for her, someone that would help her stand against those mean pikachu. Someone that would provide her warmth and food. That was about everything she currently thought. I gently rubbed her against my face and purred.

Wait, what, I purred? Did I just purr?

"Ehm, yes, you did..." Espeon said. Oh yeah, Espeon was reading my mind.

"Creepy... Very, very creepy..." I said while looking at Cammy and Lukas.

"What's creepy?" Lukas asked.

"Well, I sensed that we were in danger when Espeon jumped us, I just purred..." I said. "I guess I'm really getting used to this life..." Lukas looked strange at me.

"Well, of course you are... You joined us for that, didn't you?"

"Well yes, but my purpose wasn't changing into one." I laughed.

"Maybe you will! Then we can play!" Lukas said happily. Cammy quickly joined him.

"Yes! I want to play with you, daddy!" she said. This made me look at her for a moment. She just called me 'daddy'... This felt very strange, yet so very special... Lukas had jumped from my shoulder and was provoking Cammy to chase after him.

"Let's do it!" I said. Both pokémon had completely forgotten about the story of albinism and only wanted to play now. I decided to just go with it. It didn't matter, they wouldn't understand it anyway.

"Oh, I will. As long you explain me clearly." Espeon spoke through my mind.

"I'll explain you when I found a suitable place to let those two play..." I said inside my head. She smiled at me and we walked towards the colony, taking a turn right before reaching it and we were at a middle sized clearing that was perfectly suitable to play. Lukas and Cammy had all forgotten about me and were chasing each other through the high grass. They were playing shock tag and ran around me, stopped, looked at each other through my legs, jumped right and left to evade each other and then sprinted away at amazing speeds. After about half an hour, when Cammy was getting tired and walked up to me. She climbed my lap to take a nap, but Lukas wouldn't stop. He came up to us, pushed his cheeks against Cammy's, charged her, and then everything would start over for another fifteen minutes. I could only laugh at them, joining them halfway Cammy's second charge and running across the field and hiding inside the grass, scaring the hell out of her once when she had lost track of me. She got me back about ten minutes later, hiding somewhere and shocking me from the back when I walked right past her. It was a really impressive shock for a three week old pichu.

After another thirty minutes, Lukas was also getting tired and both chu's climbed my lap to take a nap. I also dozed off but I knew I had to stay awake to keep an eye on the surroundings. Predators could be anywhere. Me and Espeon had a long talk about DNA and genetics, but from what I understood she hadn't really understood a word. She had been listening very interested though, while I was looking up some stuff on my phone to make sure I told her the right way.

On the other side, she had told me some interesting things about the ekans and arbok. She had been spying them and had discovered they weren't really happy about me. The ekans I had attacked was still fresh in their minds and Espeon had discovered that they were scared of me because of my size and my knowledge of the snakes.

"But how can they know I know about them?" I asked Espeon.

"I don't really know, but from what I've heard one of their leaders was a trainer pokémon once." Espeon said. That would explain some things, because trainer pokémon are generally smarter than their federal counterparts. They understand more human things and are mostly the strongest of a group because they are trained. It would also explain why they didn't attack anymore since Volt had iron tale'ed the ekans the other day. Except one or two more 'checks' of the colony by a ekans and an arbok, nothing special had happened.

"We shouldn't underestimate them... They could be attacking any time." I said while thinking about possible battle strategies, something completely unknown to Espeon.

"What the hell is going through you?" she asked me. "Do you wanna feed a pikachu to them?" she asked me. I laughed.

"Haha, no I won't, don't worry. I was thinking about possible strategies, you know, when they attack. We could use a pikachu as bait to lure them into the colony and then surround them by others so they're enclosed... But the problem is, you need one helpless pikachu or pichu to lure them in, and that's dangerous for the pikachu. So I think that's not a good plan..."

"You humans are so crazy... Why not just attack them?" she said.

"Because it's better to predict what they're gonna do so you can attack them there. If you make their strategy useless they will get confused and probably scatter, which makes them easy to take out one by one."

"Sounds good..." she said.

"I doubt if they even have a strategy, but if a trainer pokémon is their leader, they probably have. If you can discover their battle strategy before they attack, we already won before the battle even starts." I said, while grabbing Lukas and Cammy and standing up.

"Where are you going?" Espeon asked.

"Back to the colony." I said. "The pichu are probably wondering where I am and I wanted to finish the tree-climbing training today... They really got better at it and today I'll give them a sort of test. Let's see how good they really became."

"Interesting, I want to see that..." she said. "Their first lesson was really bad, far before you arrived. They didn't become better either... I'm wondering how good you got them in this short time."

"You'll be surprised!" I smirked while walking back to the path and turning right to the colony. As soon I entered it I was immediately stopped by Tommy, the elder. He looked quite mad at me and I already knew what the subject was.

"Why did you get Cammy back at the colony? She was expelled!" he said.

"Expelled for what." I said.

"Because she..." he said and stopped. He thought for a moment. "Because she is expelled." he then said.

"Just because she is a different color?" I said to him. "She is a perfectly healthy pichu. She has no issues whatsoever, and you JUST ABANDON HER BECAUSE SHE IS A DIFFERENT COLOR?" I said angrily, my tone getting louder and angrier at every word (and waking Cammy and Lukas up).

Tommy flinched and looked scared at me. I sighed.

"I'm a human, I won't let something like that happen." I said calm, yet with a angry undertone.

"She has to go." the elder spoke with a firm look at Cammy, who looked back at him very sad. His look told everything. He wasn't going to change his mind.

"Because of...?" I said.

"Because... Because she has to." he said, failing at making up a reason and simply following his instinct.

"Why are you so mean to me?" Cammy said to him, jumping from my arms and standing before him, her eyes starting to get wet. I'd never expected her to do this, this could be suicide! Tommy could kill her just before my very own eyes. Not that I would let that happen, but still...

"I don't understand! Everyone was nice to me and suddenly everyone hates me!" she sobbed. "I want to go back to my nest! I want mommy to come back!" The elder looked furiously at her. I stood just behind her and gave him a warning glance. Touching Cammy equaled touching me, and he understood that. Espeon had taken a few steps back.

"Go away Cammy, you don't belong here." he said.

"I do belong here!" Cammy said while moving closer to him." My mother and father live here! My brothers live here! I want to go back to them!"

"Cammy, you don't belong here." he said again, this time growling. "GO AWAY!"

"NO!" Cammy shouted to the elder. The elder didn't take this, and charged. He shocked Cammy with a very strong thundershock before I could prevent him to. Cammy shouted in pain when she was hit by much stronger thundershock than her body could handle. Lukas, which didn't want to interfere with the elders business, now jumped off my shoulder.

"STOP IT!" he shouted at the same time I had shouted "HEY!" and had grabbed Cammy away from him after he was done. Steam rose from her body and the area around her cheeks was burned. Lukas looked furiously at the elder, and the elder simply looked back, giving Lukas a warning glance. "The same could happen to you..." was what it said. Although he didn't open his mouth, I could perfectly understand him and I looked at him with a very angry face. Lukas also got the message and although he knew Tommy had crossed a line, he didn't say anything. The elder was the leader of the colony, and you had to listen to him. Lukas' face said enough to Tommy, and he turned around and left. The bastard...

"Cammy will stay in the colony for one day and one night, and then I'll take her away." I said after him while looking at the poor pichu. She tried to get up in my arms, but couldn't. She growled painfully at Tommy. He turned around, looked at me, nodded once and then turned around again to get back to the colony. Lukas and I watched him until he was gone. Lukas turned around and jumped my shoulder in one go, and looked worried at Cammy. Cammy closed her eyes in pain when I touched her burned cheeks, checking what kind of burns it were.

"We need to get some water." I said. "This shock was way too much for her, we need to cool her down." I started moving towards the lake. Both Lukas and Espeon followed me.

It took us just five minutes to get there and I sat down at the waterside and put some water on Cammy. She sighed in relief and I knew everything was gonna be alright. She looked at me with a smile. I smiled back and gently cuddled the little pichu against my face. After I sat her down in my lap, Lukas also climbed it and snuggled against Cammy, licking her cheeks. Cammy chuckled when he did it and slowly rubbed against him. He purred at her and both of them snuggled against each other and fell asleep while I watched them. They were so cute together... Too bad they weren't the same age and species...

After a relaxing thirty minutes I woke both pokémon up (Espeon had kept me company again while I had to explain the DNA thing one more time) to get something to eat and return to the colony. It was around two o'clock now, later than I had expected. I guess the playing had taken more time than I thought. After we got something to eat we headed back to the colony. The pichu immediately ran for me and gathered around me, wanting me to play with them. I smiled happily, maybe this could place our thoughts on something different than Cammy's problems. I placed Cammy in front of the group, which immediately accepted her and started playing with her like nothing ever happened. I was relieved, that meant she at least could play until the end of the day.

The tree-test went very well, every pichu I had trained managed to get an apple. The younger pichu (including Cammy's brothers and some others) had been watching from either my lap, shoulder or head and had all looked very interested. But they were too small to start climbing. As soon they were old enough I would learn them. I got them some apples from the tree and shared it among them, which they happily accepted and were now eating together with the others, or, as Espeon said it: "Tree-licious!". She was impressed by how far I managed to get the pichu.

The sun was lowering after another hour of playtime for the pichu and slowly everyone was heading back inside the colony. Some parents came outside to check if their kids were coming, including the mother of Cammy... She came to get her kids and came walking past me.

"Hi-hi" I said to her while she passed me. She stopped for a moment, released a happy "pikachu!" and got her kids together. Cammy came from the other side and saw her own mother gathering her brothers from just in front of my legs. After mom had them all together she headed back to the nest, walking past us.

"Mommy!" Cammy said happily to her mother as she ran past. The mother looked at her for just a blink and then completely ignored her. Cammy stood there, looking at her own mother demonstrating a perfect 'if-I-don't-see-the-problem-it-isn't-there' and then drooped her ears, releasing a very sad 'pichu...' meaning nothing in particular while having her arms raised at her mother, wanting to be hugged...

I sat down behind the little pichu and watched the mother and the brothers moving towards the nest. I lowered my hands and held them around the pichu, providing her a safe and warm feeling. She looked quickly at me and then back at her family. I could feel a tear flowing down her cheek. We both looked at the mom and co. getting inside the nest, not looking back whatsoever. Cammy looked up at me, and then looked back at the nest, where she couldn't see anything anymore. Gone. Away. Probably forever. She would never see them again... I raised her, placed her against my chest while she sadly sobbed.

"Sssshhhhhh..." I said while patting her back and gently rubbing my own cheeks against hers, while holding her with my both hands. She looked at me with watery eyes and then hugged my face tightly, still sobbing softly. Being rejected like this must hurt very badly...

"Don't worry, sweetheart... I've got the perfect place for you... I said gently while keeping her against my face. "I'm sure you'll like it. Nobody will turn you down like that there..."

I walked towards my sleeping bag, still whispering gentle words towards the pichu, comforting her. She hugged me tightly once more. It made me really feel like her daddy. It felt so special... This pichu really needed me and I didn't regret it any second I had taken her from the forest. She looked at me with a sad face. I could only smile gently at her. And something really weird happened: I licked her face. I just did it. I licked her face just once, to show her I still loved her, to show her somebody on this planet still cared about her. She sobbed once more and held her arms as wide as she could, wanting me to cuddle her once more. I meant a lot more to her than I thought I would. I moved her closer and she immediately hugged my face again. I pulled her back, placed her on my chest, both hands wrapped around the little creature. We arrived at my sleeping back.

I wanted to get inside, but I discovered that Lukas was already inside it. I placed Cammy next to him and she immediately snuggled close to him. He smiled, got up, placed Cammy in between his paws and laid down again, his head on her small body.

"Jeez Lukas, are you also adopting her or something?" I smiled at the pikachu.

"I wish she could stay... She's cute and I love to play with her..." he said while he groomed her like he had never done different. I laid next to the two rodents and watched Cammy. Laying between Lukas' paws and his head looked adorable.

"You look cute like that, Lukas." Espeon said while appearing out of nowhere and also laying down, next to my bag.

"That's what I thought." I said to her. "But you probably knew that."

"Of course." she chuckled.

I snuggled against both of them and sighed. Lukas got up and moved deeper inside the bag for safety. I got Cammy and placed her inside my clothes to ensure no pikachu would harm her tonight. You could never know...

"You already decided if you want to come with me?" I asked Lukas.

"Not really..." he said. "But I'd love to see the human places once..."

"Then you'll come. I'll ensure that you're safe from humans, don't worry." I smiled at him and laying down, closing my eyes. I wanted to get Cammy out of this hell. She couldn't be happy here. It just couldn't. Tomorrow morning I would depart and bring her to Oak, and probably to someone else. But I was wondering if they would want to have her... Well, only time could tell...


	14. Would they accept?

_Hello everyone, it's me again with a new chapter! I tried to make it look cute. I hope I succeeded! Please leave a review or send me a PM if you don't want to review._

_Thanks for Bloodstargeneral and Pichufan for reviews!  
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_EDIT: Sorry for the double upload, I had uploaded the wrong chapter!  
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><p>"Bye all, will be back tomorrow..." I said to some pikachu that wondered where I was going. One or two waved, but the rest just thought I was weird. Cammy and Lukas were on my both shoulders, and I had my backpack packed with clothes. I would take new ones with me from home and dump these in the laundry so I didn't have to wash them. Cammy had a very relaxed night... All other pikachu had left her alone.<p>

I walked through the forest. Now I knew the way a lot better, I could find my way back a lot quicker. Oak's laboratory wasn't that far, just about two kilometers from the colony, from which only three hundred meters were through dense forest. I was so used to forest now that I didn't know better, I had no trouble going through it anymore. Not like when I entered the colony at least. It was a really good feeling.

Arriving at the sand road through the forest area, I started walking towards Oak's lab. You could see it already from here. The windmill standing next to it rose out of the trees, indicating the location. Oak had been expecting me, I messaged him that I would come early in the morning, probably just after sunrise. I checked the time and it was about 6:30 in the morning. Although normal humans would have trouble getting up this early, I didn't. In just one month I was so used to getting up at sunrise that I didn't bother. I felt great. Cammy and Lukas also felt great, I could tell. They were both a bit nervous, it would be the first time they would probably see other humans that would touch them. After a twenty minute walk, which looked like only five minutes for me, I arrived at the lab. I rang the bell on the entrance and waited.

"Alright guys, Oak will be right here. Don't be afraid of him, he won't hurt you. He'll probably want to examine you, Cammy, but don't worry."

"Pichu!" Cammy said.

"Pika-pikachu!" Lukas said.

"Alright then..." I chuckled while I saw Oak appearing through the glass door. He walked towards the main door and opened it.

"Maurice!" he said. "Good to see you again..." he said while inspecting me and then both chu's on my shoulders.

"And who might you be?" he said interested.

"This -" I said while pointing at Lukas "-is Lukas. Lukas is sort of my guide inside the colony. He explains me stuff and he's kind of my mate..." I said while chuckling. "That sounds horribly wrong, of course I mean mate as friend." Lukas cringed and looked scared at Oak. The pikachu had to get used to contact with other humans.

"Oh, don't be scared, silly." Oak said while gently petting him. "I'm professor Oak. You can just call me Oak." he said. Lukas had raised as soon his hand reached his head and was now purring loudly.

"Pika-Pikachu!" he said cutely.

"And this..." I said while pointing at Cammy, "This is Cammy."

Cammy, encouraged by Lukas, released a scared yet cute "pichu...". Oak scratched her under her chin.

"You're adorable." he said.

"She certainly is..." I said while I laughed at her while she tried to lick Oak's fingers. "And she's also hungry. She needs milk bad."

"Alright, come in..." he said. I entered and followed him to his lab which had a big metal table for investigation in the middle, on which I placed both Cammy and Lukas. They immediately stared to investigate the whole thing from start to finish and back.

"So, how are things going...?" Oak asked me with a very happy voice and a very interested glance.

"Things are going great... The colony accepted me and I'm an official babysitter. I'm learning the pichu stuff I know and the pikachu learn me stuff I can teach them." I said. "Really fun thing to do... They're all adorable."

"And what have you discovered yet?" he asked. I started telling him about the colony, the problems, the things, the raichu, arbok, and other stuff. He smiled and his face beamed at me.

"It's more than I expected..." he said. "I expected you to need at least three months to get accepted but you are already managed to get inside deeper than I could ever imagine..."

"Haha, yeah, same counts for me. They accepted me... LUKAS! Cut it out!" Lukas was busy investigating the whole lab together with Cammy and they had found some glasses containing unknown liquids. They had managed to open one and were now licking the content from the floor.

"Wha-ha, don't worry, it's only water." Oak said.

"Yeah, but the next one could be poisonous. You never know." I smiled. "And I have a little problem here." I said.

"What is it...?" Oak said.

"Cammy. She has been abandoned from the colony two days ago." I said while looking at her. She was now investigating a crane. Lukas sat near her and sniffed it. He jumped in the sink and looked up at the downside of the crane, where a drip of water was hanging.

"Abandoned by the mother?" Oak asked.

"Yes, she was abandoned by the mother." I sighed. "As soon she had abandoned her, the colony turned against her. I have taken her back from the forest when she was chased away."

"Hmmm, you didn't let her die?" Oak said.

"Are you getting insane or something...?" I said. "Me? Letting a pichu get killed? Come on..."

"I've told you not to interfere with nature..." he said.

"I know, but I just couldn't let her die. She was cute, perfectly healthy, and..."

"PIKACHU-PIIIIIII!" Lukas screamed. I looked in his direction. He was still in the sink and Cammy had managed to open the crane, making water flow over him. He jumped out of the sink, jumped down, and ran for the outside towards the light, completely panicked.

"LUKAS, WAIT, THAT'S..."

*** BAM ***

"...glass..." I said.

Luke whined pathetically. He stood on the floor with his head against the glass, looking completely confused. He shook the water of himself and then sat down with his paw against his head, rubbing the painful red spot that had appeared. I picked him up.

"You didn't need to break loose, it was just water..." I said gently to him.

"Pika-PIKACHU." he said angrily. "Pikapikachu..."

"Yes, but how can she know..." I said him while giving him a comforting cuddle. He enjoyed the attention and laid his head under my neck, against my chest.

"Pika-pikachu..." he said while I scratched behind his ears. While I was dealing with Lukas, Oak had picked Cammy up and was examining her. He looked at her from all sides, mumbled something and wrote some stuff down. He got a camera from one of the shelves.

"Alright Cammy, standstill please..." he said with a camera in his hand.

"Pichu...?" Cammy said while she looked at the camera, curious what that thing would do. FLASH. Cammy got blinded while the picture was taken and she shouted loudly when she had closed her eyes. I chuckled while Cammy slowly opened them again.

"Show her the photo." I said. "I wonder what she thinks of it." Oak showed her the picture of herself. Cammy looked at the buttons, but then Oak pointed her at the screen and then she saw herself.

"Pichu...?" she said while tapping the screen.

"That's you!" Oak said on a childish manner, perfectly suitable for Cammy.

"Pichu pi?" Cammy said while getting closer to the device and looking at herself. Oak got her on her shoulder and pointed the camera at me.

"Check this out, Cammy." he said. "SMILE!" he said while he pointed the camera at me and Lukas.

"Smile, Lukas!" I said while I quickly placed the pikachu on my shoulder. Lukas only looked confused and was also blinded by the flash the camera produced. He closed his eyes and slowly opened them while Oak and Cammy were already watching the just created picture.

"It's a nice one, Maurice." he said. Cammy watched the picture, watched me, and then watched the picture again. She was very interested in the device able to create... Create new pichu to play with? Or were they... Her pichu mind couldn't really understand what happened. It was a funny sight.

"I wonder what happens if we set them against a mirror..." I said to Oak, nodding my head to both pokémon. He chuckled and then released Cammy back on the ground, while Lukas jumped down.

"Do you guys wanna see our pokémon playground?" Oak said. Both pokémon squealed something in their language, which could only mean yes. Oak had more than one playground. Inside was a small enclosure where pokémon could stay for medication, when they needed an observation or when Oak just didn't need them for a short time while he was doing tests with them. Outside you had multiple bigger enclosures, which were made to hold wild pokémon or to hold pokémon that were about to be released. Sometimes to train them, help them learn certain stuff after that had been sick or anything else that required a safe but natural environment. And you had the biggest field which could house possibly any pokémon. I always called it the backyard.

Oak bought the two pokémon over to the playground, which had all kinds of toys in it which Lukas and Cammy could check out. Simple stuff like a football, some climbing stuff, and other things you would expect in a playground.

While the two had a great time, me and Oak resumed the chat about Cammy, while we watched her interact with Lukas.

"So she was abandoned... Well, the reason is clear." he stated to me.

"Yup, the color." I said.

"I think she's albino..." he said.

"That's what I thought... But she hasn't got red eyes like albinos do..." I said. "She also doesn't seem to have any trouble at seeing, hearing or anything else..." I said while looking at Cammy climbing upwards to the second floor of the playground.

"You're right..." Oak said while looking at her. "Well, then she's... Just different. Genetic error?"

"I think so... Anyway, I wanted to talk about her... She needs a place to stay as long I'm with the colony." I said. "I can't keep her there. I managed to prevent the pikachu to kill her for one day, but if I would take her back she will be killed instantly..." I said while I sighed.

"Yes, I understand..." Oak said. "Already had an idea?"

"Yep. Did Jack and Rosie have a nest this year?" I asked.

"Um, no. I believe they have been trying very hard, but they were unlucky this year..." Oak chuckled.

"Awww, no pichu this year for Rosie? She must be broken hearted..." I said.

"Well, she seems to take it quite well, I must say. She was disappointed, but maybe she will later this year. She doesn't have to deal with the seasons, you know..."

"Yeah, true..." I said. "Are they at the oasis?"

"Most of the time, yes. I think they just woke up. I think they'll come for food any time now..." Oak said.

"Do you?" I said. "There's plenty outside... I think they can manage themselves for the upcoming weeks."

"Well, yes, but I promised them to bring them something special. You see I had a party two days ago and some of the cake didn't really get eaten, and I'm trying to lose some weight. So I promised them some pie." he said while blushing. "Plus, you would come. I thought you would like something different than apples and berries."

"Oh, is it chocolate?" I asked him.

"Yes, how'd you know?" he said.

"Just guessing." I said while I laughed. "Isn't chocolate bad for pikachu...?" I asked.

"Well it isn't the healthiest food for them, but they can life on it." Oak chuckled.

"I'll get to them. I'm sure they'll be happy to see me..." I said.

"Oh, I'm sure. They missed you! I'll see you in a minute. I'll be doing some little tests on Cammy..." he said.

"As long you don't scare her." I said while walking through the door to Oaks backyard. I was heading for Jack and Rosie (originally named Rose, but everyone called her Rosie), two pikachu living at Oak's place. The trainer that trained them had abandoned, or rather, left them behind at Oak. Both pikachu were picked up in a pokécenter far away and had fallen in love almost straight away. They were inseparable and were mates. The trainer didn't have any problem with that, but soon it would appear that both pikachu weren't real fighters. They were more pet pokémons. The trainer had decided he wouldn't train them further and had chosen what was best for his pokémon. He had left them behind at Oak about three years ago. After an emotional leave for both trainer and pikachu (both of the pikachu), they had settled in a nest we had created near Oak's laboratory. They were the pikachu that kept my interest in them alive. They were so cute, so... Heartwarming. They accepted almost every human with so much attention. They even helped at a course for people that were afraid of pokémon, because they were so used to them. Although you may not understand, some people are actually afraid for pokémon... Afraid they get attacked or get bitten or something... Jack and Rosie were perfect material to practise on. They were gentle, nice, and wouldn't attack you when you did something wrong. When I had entered the classroom with both pikachu on my back, I was surprised the people in there were so scared... But Jack and Rosie had done a great job and with my help (I had to hold them while the contestants could slowly try to stroke them) everyone had come one step closer to not being afraid for pokémon.

Jack and Rosie were living near the lab since that day and every year (for the last three years at least) they would have at least one nest of pichu. All pichu they raised were perfectly fine pichu, and since I came to the lab often I always brought them a visit. We had started to really like each other because of the food I brought them, the sleep places I gave them, and the help I gave them with the pichu. You see, in the winter, when it went really cold, these pikachu didn't stay outside in their nest, but would move either inside the laboratory or to my home. Because they were born and raised at people's home, they were used to human contact since they were born. They didn't know better. And that's also why they moved to trainers when it became cold. I knew that if someone would be perfect parents for Cammy, it would be Jack and Rosie.

I had reached the oasis. The oasis was a little piece of soil, bushes and a bunch of trees in the middle of the big grass area in Oak's backyard, similar to a typical one you would see in comics but then in the desert. Here was the entrance to their nest, which I had made about four years ago in the hope one day a pikachu would come and settle in. When Jack and Rosie had come, Oak had stated that would be a perfect place for them. And it indeed was, because they were still living there since they came. I entered the small clearing around the opening by the nest.

"Jack! Rosie! Are you here?" I said.

"Pika!" I heard happily from inside the nest and Rosie was the first to exit it. She looked very happy to see me again after a long time (they were used to see me about three times a week) and started to jump me. Jack also came out and he greeted me happily. I sat down before the female while she got in my lap, gently rubbing her cheeks against my belly. Jack jumped after her and both pikachu ended up being scratched behind the ears by me. They loved that. Every pikachu loved that.

"Hi guys... How are you doing..." I said slowly and gently while I scratched a little better. A loud purr from both of them was the answer, followed by an inspection. They both sniffed me and Rosie looked at me.

"Pika pikachu?" she said.

"You smell other pikachu, don't you?" I said. She nodded.

"By the way, I heard you're not pregnant this year! How's that possible?" I said.

"Pika pikachu..." she said. "Pika pika-pikachu!"

"Pikachu-pi". Jack said.

"Well, it doesn't matter." I said smiling. "I want to ask you something..."

"Chu?" Rosie said, tilting her head and looking at me with a questionable face.

"Well, it's this..." I said. "As you may know, I have joined a colony of wild pikachu. You just smelled it, didn't you?" I said smiling. Rosie nodded again and smiled back. Jack also nodded purred when I scratched him on his tummy.

"Well, two days before I left, there was a pichu in the colony that got abandoned, Cammy." I said. "She has been chased away from the colony and I got her back, otherwise she would have died. The thing is, I don't want to leave the colony yet, but I can't take Cammy back to it. She will be killed by the pikachu that life there... So I am looking for someone to adopt her, to take care of her while I'm gone. I don't know how long I'll be gone yet, maybe I'm back next week, maybe next month, or maybe even next year..."

"Pikachu?" Jack asked.

"She's about three weeks old. She doesn't know anything yet. She has been exploring for only two days now. She's really cute..." I said. "The thing is, she got abandoned for a reason. And that reason is because she's a white pichu." Rosie gave me a surprised yet strange glance, just as Jack. White? But, pichu were yellow, weren't they?

"Yup, that's the thing. She's white. The point is, I'm looking for someone to adopt her, and I was thinking about you two..." I said while looking at both of them. This was certainly a strange situation. I was asking two pikachu to adopt a child that wasn't theirs. In the pokéworld, a pikachu would never do that. But since I knew these two so well, and since they were used to humans and knew I could be trusted, they looked at me.

"She's just a normal pichu, the only difference is that she's white. That's why she got abandoned. She is perfectly healthy and because you guys are such good parents - I mean, you already raised three nests of pichu - you would be perfect..." I said. I could almost hear them think.

"Oh, and Oak asked me to get you. He said he had something for you..." They looked at each other and then at me and both smiled.

"So do you want to see her?" I asked.

"Pika pikachu!" Jack said.

"Pikachu!" Rosie said.

"You want to see her?" I asked happily. Both of them nodded.

"That's great guys, thank you... I hope you'll accept her, it would mean so much to me and to her..." I said while hugging both pikachu at the same time. They both released happy squeaks and rubbed my face. They were both real cuddlers, even worse than Lukas. Last winter they had been staying with me, and when I was watching TV on the couch, they had jumped on my chest, laid down on it with their heads snuggled under my neck and requesting to be hugged for the whole evening. At night the same happened. I had created a nice place for them to sleep, where they both slept until I went to my own bed. Then they would come as soon they knew I was sleeping (or rather waiting to fall asleep), diving under my blankets and laying down against me rubbing me with their cheeks as long I didn't embrace them or cuddled them. Not that I minded though. I liked both of them. They jumped from my lap and ran behind each other.

I got up while both pikachu ran ahead of me to the laboratory. I quickly followed them and we arrived at the lab at the same time. They waited for me to open the door and then entered.

"Hello Jack, Hello Rose..." Oak said while he gave them both a stroke on their back. They jumped the table and looked around while Oak got them some pokéchew.

"She isn't here yet." I smiled. "She's in the playroom with another pikachu from the colony, one that DOES accept her."

"Pika pikachu!" Rosie smiled at me. I could tell she was dieing to see Cammy. Oak gave the food to both pikachu. They happily accepted it and started eating, which remembered me to Cammy.

"Maurice?" Oak said. I looked at him. He was holding a bottle of milk in front of me.

"Perfect, thanks." I said to him and then went to get Cammy. She and Lukas were still inside the playground (which wasn't a surprise to me, pokémon couldn't get out easily).

"Cammy!" I said happily while showing the bottle of milk. "I've got milk for you!" Cammy looked at the bottle. She had never seen one before, so she didn't know this meant food time. I placed the bottle on the side of the playground, grabbed Cammy and sat down. Holding her like a baby, I placed the teat of the bottle in front of her. But she wasn't going to accept this. She squirmed, wanting to get away. She didn't like the bottle at all and screamed. I removed the bottle and hugged her. After she had calmed down, I tried again.

"Alright, don't panic, I'm sure you'll like this." I said with a smirk. I knew that as soon she knew milk would come out she would be addicted to this bottle. I placed the tear in front of her mouth, which didn't open.

"Open your mouth, sweetie!" I said gently. Cammy refused. What was the point in swallowing that? Why would she? It was time for plan B. I removed the bottle out of sight and placed my little finger inside her mouth. Instinctively, Cammy started to suck on it, hoping milk would come out. She closed her eyes as I stroked her with my other hand. Now I quickly grabbed the bottle and placed it in her mouth instead of my finger, but Cammy noticed this and rejected it, squirming again and escaping me.

"Cammy, come back!" I said. That didn't work... Plan C, perhaps?

"Lukas?" I said. Lukas came and saw the bottle. He recognised the milk, because he immediately started to sniff the bottle and trying to get it through the bottle. He didn't understand you should suck the upside to get milk, so he was scratching the bottle from all sides. I laughed at him.

"Need some help?" I said to him. He nodded fiercely. I chuckled.

"It's not for you. It's for Cammy, she needs to learn how to drink this..." I said. "Just drink some milk so Cammy knows how to get it." I said to him while I grabbed him and lied him on his back in my arms and in my lap. He didn't protest, but he didn't like it either. This changed as soon he saw I was going to feed him milk. He squeaked happily as I placed the bottle in his mouth. He immediately started to suck it and tasted the milk coming out of the bottle. He purred loudly while he started to drink the warm content of it. He closed his eyes and looked incredibly cute while he was busy drinking, his paws pulling the bottle close and his feet keeping it up in the air so the milk would flow to the teat. This immediately interested Cammy and she came looking what I was doing with Lukas. She saw him purring and noticed that he seemed to be drinking. I let him go for another ten seconds before I removed the bottle from him. He gulped down the last bit he had in his mouth and stuck his legs and arms out in a request for more milk. I laughed at him.

"This is meant for Cammy...!" I said to him. I placed him next to me and grabbed Cammy, holding her in one arm like you would hold a little baby. This time she seemed a bit more cooperative. I cleaned the top of the bottle.

"Open your mouth!" I demanded with a gentle voice. She complied while I put the bottle in her mouth. She sucked the teat instinctively and was rewarded with warm milk. She also purred loudly while she quickly started to gulp the milk down. She was really hungry. Then Oak came in with Jack and Rosie on his shoulders.

"Ah, I see you're feeding her. That's good. At least I don't have to teach her how to eat out of a bottle." he said. "That can be a real pain."

"Just use another pikachu to show it." I said while pointing at Lukas, who was cleaning his fur from some spilled milk.

"Good point... Never thought about that..." Oak said. "But I mostly have only one pikachu or pichu... The one I got to feed."

"Then you use Jack or Rosie. All pikachu love milk. It's something they like their whole lives." I said while looking at both pikachu. "Don't you, guys?"

Both pikachu nodded and smiled while Jack jumped from Oak's shoulder and stood next to me and watched Cammy, which was now drinking much slower than before. He sniffed her and looked at her from a couple of angles. He turned his head to me.

"Pika-pikachu...?" he said.

"Yep, this is Cammy..." I said softly to him.

A little time later Cammy was completely stuffed and didn't drink anymore. I removed the bottle and Cammy looked at me with happy and grateful eyes, and closed them, ready to go take a nap. But I lifted her and put her on my shoulder while I offered the remaining bit of milk to Jack and Lukas. Lukas snatched the bottle from me and ran away as far he could to devour the last bit of milk inside. Oak laughed at me standing with my hand still in offering mode while my head followed Lukas running away.

"I guess you're right." he chuckled.

"I'm always right, except when I'm not." I said while turning around and grabbing Cammy from my shoulder and holding her against my chest with her back. Rosie looked at her.

"Cammy, I've got something for you." I said while Jack jumped Oaks shoulder again.

"These are Jack (I pointed at Jack) and Rosie (I pointed at Rosie). "They..." I said while holding Cammy before both pikachu "...are gonna be your new parents."

Cammy flinched for both pikachu. She expected them to attack her or even kill her and she backed off towards my chest, bumping into it realizing she had nowhere to go, although I was holding her quite tightly. She whimpered in a very fearful way. Rosie turned her head and looked questionable at Cammy, while she leaped from Oak's shoulder to mine. This made Cammy flinch even more, while she clung to my clothes and my chest. I stroked her head. Rosie and Jack jumped my other shoulder and got close to Cammy. She looked anxiously at both pikachu, but I held her tightly and she knows nothing could hurt her with me near her.

"Cammy, don't be so afraid..." I started but Rosie was quicker. She placed her paws on my chest and using her excellent balance she managed to jump my hands that were holding Cammy. I quickly unwrapped Cammy so there was a bit more room for both pokémon. Rosie nuzzled Cammy with her nose and spoke to the pichu. It sounded very gently and very calm, even better than I could possibly do it. Jack also wanted to get close to Cammy, but since that wouldn't fit I sat down and placed Cammy in my lap with Rosie and Jack near Cammy. She looked anxiously at both pikachu while Rosie was still talking to her. It was very soft and I could not understand it, but it had to be either an explanation or she was either comforting Cammy. Jack came close to Cammy and started to lick her cheeks and head, slowly grooming her from top to bottom, making her get a new scent, the one from Jack and Rosie. Cammy got completely overwhelmed while Rosie now also started licking her new child. She had to close her eyes while she looked at both pikachu, and then purred, knowing that they wouldn't hurt her.

"Cammy... These are your new parents..." I said again. She looked at me with a questionable and sad face.

"Pichu pi...?" she said while now getting comforted by Rose, which was now rubbing her cheeks against Cammy's fur. It was all wet from the grooming she had just received and Jack wasn't done yet. I sighed.

"Yes, I'm gonna leave you for a while..." I said.

"Pichu-pichu pi!" she said. Although I couldn't understand it I knew she didn't want me to go.

"Cammy, I want to stay with the colony for a longer time..." I said. "Although I love you very much - I really do - you gotta have parents that can learn you being a normal pichu. Learn you to survive, train you how to use your electricity... Learn you... All kinds of stuff I can't teach you... Back in the colony other pikachu can help me... When you stay with me... I can't teach you..."

Cammy looked at me and cried. But was he also abandoning her? After everything he had said? He would take care of her? He would... Raise her?

"Cammy... I won't be gone forever..." I said. Cammy looked at me.

"You'll stay here, while I go back. I wish I could take you with me, but they will kill you when I do..." I sighed. "However, these pikachu won't. And Oak also won't. They will help you, learn you, feed you and offer you a very warm place..." I said. "By the way, I will visit you! I will come by regularly to say hi to you and to give you a nice and sweet cuddle." I said while lifting her and cuddling her close to me. She rubbed her cheeks against me squeaked softly. Then I lowered her and placed her in front of the two pikachu. Cammy took two little steps towards the pikachu. Jack lowered himself onto four paws and urged her to come to them. Cammy looked back at me unsurely, but as soon she saw me smiling and nodding slowly, she moved towards her new parents. She reached Jack first, who gently sat on two legs and held his paws out towards the little pichu. She took another step closer and now stood before both pikachu. She looked back one more time towards me and then turned around to face her new parents. She held her arms out like she had done to her own mother, which had refused and ignored her. This time, two loving parents came towards her and Jack grabbed Cammy gently and pulled her close. Rosie cuddled her from the back at the same time. Cammy squeaked happily and I knew the adoption was successful. She was hugged by both parents who now started to lick her and clean her again. Cammy purred at the attention she received and looked at me happily.

"I won't be gone sweetheart... As soon I return from the colony, I'll really adopt you. You can live with me..." I said while stroking her. She smiled towards me. She now understood why this happened. She knew I really wanted to do what was best... Although leaving her was a bit... Rude...? Was it rude? But it was best for her. Two loving pika-parents would be able to learn Cammy everything she needed, plus, she would get used to human contact. Something she would need when she would be living with me. Jack and Rosie wouldn't mind that I would take her back later, all of their pichu (or even some pikachu, because they already evolved) were given to people that wanted one. Most of them even visited the mother and father regularly with their caretakers, because they were adopted by people close to Pallet or either Viridian.

I got up and looked at Lukas... At least, I looked where he was, because he had missed the heartwarming scene and had finished the bottle of milk. He was now sleeping in a small wooded area which was made to play and jump on. I got close to him and called out for Cammy, Jack and Rosie (and Oak).

"Watch." I said.

"I placed my hands on Lukas' belly and started tickling him very badly. He woke quickly, laughing loudly and pushing my hands away with his paws. I won the battle however.

"Beg for mercy!" I laughed at him while keeping playfully tickling him awake. The poor pikachu was barely able to say something, so he sparked his cheeks. I saw the attack coming and made sure I didn't make contact with anything. The room lit up when Lukas attacked me with a thundershock, which didn't even go through me because I was still wearing my electricity shoes.

"The attack didn't affect opponent Maurice!" I said to him. Lukas said something through his laughing and that must be a plea for mercy, so I released him playfully. He panted, got on his feet and jumped my shoulder.

"Pika pikachu!" he said.

"Those shoes really work well..." Oak said.

"They certainly do. You could at least tell me you put them in my backpack." I chuckled. "My old ones are now toys for the pichu."

"Alright Lukas, I think we're done here... We're moving on towards my own home." I said.

"I'll bring you." Oak said. "Otherwise you won't have time left before you return... I need to get a pokémon at the center in Viridian anyway."

"That's good. Lukas, did you ever drive a car?" I asked. He looked at me like I was crazy.

"Pika...?"

"A car. You know, a metal thing on four wheels and it drives." Lukas pulled a face. This could get fun, a pikachu with no knowledge about human things whatsoever and one day of visiting a human house. This could not go well. I looked at Cammy, Jack and Rosie.

"You want to come along?" I asked.

"Cammy happily nodded and then looked at her new mother. The mom nodded and Cammy jumped for me. After Jack and Rosie also were in my arms, with Cammy in the middle and Lukas on my shoulder, we left the lab and headed for Oak's car. I wondered what my mother would say when I came home with four pokémon. She already hadn't liked Bobby when my father had him, she thought Bobby was a dirty pokémon that needed to stay outside. My father always would say to Bobby he should ignore her and that he loved him. In fact, my mother did actually love Bobby but from her own mother (my grandma, which passed away before I was born) she had learned pokémon weren't allowed inside a house. That still possessed her like a ghost...

My father however would probably love I took some pokémon home. He had always wanted to give me my own pichu to take care of, but my mother had always stopped him. His wish would come true now, because I adopted Cammy.

Yes, things could get really interesting. We headed for the car to return to Viridian, to my family...


	15. Coming home

_Hello everyone! Quite a long time since I last updated. I'm sorry for that, even when it's holiday. But I'm kinda busy with everything and nothing. :P_

_But, to make up, I've got the longest chapter. Currently over 10.000 words, which makes it the longest of all. This chapter contains all kind of elements and you'll get to know some more information of Lukas' past... But I'll quit spoiling stuff, just go read._

_Please leave a review so I know what you think of the story!_

* * *

><p>After we packed some stuff (milk for Cammy, cake for everyone, and some other stuff), we were ready to leave for my family.<p>

"Oh, Lukas...?" I asked.

"There's something I need to do with you and Cammy..." I said. "I gotta register you so you can't be caught by anyone else by accident."

"Pika?" Lukas said as I pulled out a pokéball.

"Don't worry..." I said. "I will reset the ball as soon we go back to the colony, so you're free again."

"Why not use the pad to register him to your name?" Oak asked.

"So I can catch and release him easier." I said.

"Lukas, just standstill. Ever seen a pokémon being caught?" I said. Lukas shook his head. He hadn't. There weren't a lot of trainers that came to the colony and caught pikachu.

"Alright... You'll be caught in this ball when it touches you." I said. "Do not resist. Don't try to escape. You'll get stuck, but I'll get you out immediately." This didn't please Lukas at the very least, but he nodded. I tapped his head gently.

"Don't be afraid, it won't hurt you." I said. I sat in front of him and dropped the pokéball on his head. The pokéball opened and sucked Lukas inside. Lukas panicked as soon he turned red and was sucked inside the pokéball.

"Don't panic Lukas! Do not resist!" I said firmly. I knew he could still hear me inside. But it was no use, the ball opened again and Lukas appeared. The ball fell on the floor and Lukas jumped on my shoulder and clung his paws to my head. I smiled at him.

"Is it scary to be caught?" I said, gently rubbing against him to comfort him and to calm him down. He was breathing heavily as if he was running a long way. It must cost a lot of energy to fight the pokéball and escape it. He nodded and whined, looking at the pokéball that laid on the floor.

"Don't be scared. It's purely to register you so anyone else cannot catch you..." I said. "Cammy can be registered by the poképad, but I want to be able to release you when we return to the forest. Visiting Oak every time will won't be handy..." Lukas looked at me and then nodded. He walked over to the pokéball and gave it to me.

"You can also press this button." I said. "Try it!" Lukas looked at the button, sniffed it, and then pushed it. The pokéball opened and poor Lukas panicked while he was sucked inside again. The ball rumbled. One... Two... And it opened again. Lukas jumped out, panting heavily and looking at the pokéball. He looked at me and shook his head.

"Come on Luuk, one more time..." I said while gently petting the pikachu. "It's just to prevent anyone else catching you and taking you away from the colony. Although chances are slim, if someone notices you're still a wild pokémon, they will probably try to catch you. I don't want you to be gone forever with someone else... I don't know if you want to go on a journey with a trainer..." I said while looking at Lukas. He shook his head quickly, not wanting to go away from his friends, family and in special: me. Although I didn't know that.

"Alright then, one more time. Nothing will happen to you, I promise." I said smiling. Lukas gulped, but then nodded and pressed the button himself again. The ball sucked him inside and Lukas looked panicked again, but stood still this time. The pokéball shook a couple of times before the red button on the front gave one long red beep and Lukas was caught. I immediately walked up to the ball.

"Lukas, come on out!" I said. Lukas appeared and looked around.

"Pika-pikachu..." he said. I noticed he was shivering. I picked him up and looked him over, but nothing seemed to be wrong.

"Lukas, calm down... You don't have to go back." I said and put the ball around my belt and nuzzled my nose through his fur on his head the way he liked it. Then I placed Lukas on the table with the PC and the poképad.

"Alright, Cammy!" I said. Cammy was handed over to me by Jack. I placed Cammy on a pad connected to Oak's PC. I booted it up and placed Cammy back on the pad, since she had walked over to me to check out the PC.

"Stay there one second, sweetie." I said to her. The pad lit up and a light surrounded Cammy. She flinched, but she saw me smiling at her and looked interested at the blue light that seemed to rise from under her. Lukas had forgotten he was scared and he walked up to Cammy.

"Don't go near, Luk'!" I said. Lukas stopped, looked at me and looked back at Cammy.

"Alright... Species... Pichu... Weight... Normal... Height... Normal... Color... Yellow... Yeah sure... Attacks... Wow Cammy, you know Volt Tackle? Cool!" I said." The rest were standard pichu attacks. I clicked a button and registered Cammy to myself.

"All done!" I said while taking Cammy off the pad and putting her on my left shoulder. She squeaked happily and purred while rubbing against my cheek.

"Hehe... You're so sweet..." I chucked while I rubbed her cheek back. Lukas jumped my other shoulder.

"Alright, do we have everything?" I asked to the pikachu and Oak.

"I think so. Otherwise your mother will have it." Oak reacted.

"Yeah, true." I answered. Taking three pikachu and a pichu with you in a car wasn't easy. Both Jack and Rosie were used to it, but Cammy and Lukas didn't like it at all. They didn't know what was gonna happen and they didn't want to enter the car at first. Cammy entered as first (although she still didn't want to, Rosie had picked her up at her scruff and simply placed her inside) and then Lukas did. Jack, Rosie and Cammy had special seats in the back made for pokémon, but there was no room for Lukas. So I took him on my lap, which immediately solved his troubles. I put the seating belts around the pokémon in the back. They couldn't do this themselves because they were special ones. Jack and Rosie drove often in Oak's truck so their seats were easily accessible. The seats were specially made for pokémon, and didn't gave trouble with their tails and height, and had special four-point belts so the pikachu were secure. Even better, both pikachu slept a lot in the seats because they were so comfortable. As soon you started to drive, they would almost immediately doze off to pika-dreamland. We also had special pichu seats, because both pikachu often had children to take care of, which (of course) came along when they went away.

We drove away to Viridian. Lukas and Cammy looked around quite scared as soon the car started. But both pokémon looked surprised when they were suddenly moving quickly. So quick, they couldn't keep track of the surroundings. Lukas was constantly trying to watch stuff and before you knew it was gone. Looking back at the back of the car, I saw Cammy doing the same. She looked left and right, looked to the passing houses of Pallet, the trees, the people walking in the town... It was all new for both of them. I looked at Jack and Rosie. Both pikachu had their eyes closed and their heads to the side of their seat. They slept like a log. Unbelievable that they could do that so quickly.

"Being a pikachu has its advantages..." I though as we moved on towards Viridian. After a while we arrived at my home.

"Thanks for bringing me, Sam." I said.

"No problem. You'll be able to get back yourself?" he said.

"Yes, I will. I'll be back tomorrow morning. I don't know how late you're gonna be there, but I think you won't be there when I'm going back." I said.

"Well, see you later. I'll keep you in touch on Cammy... Oh, Cammy. Yeah, you need to bring her back, don't you?" he said.

"Yes, but I don't need you for that." I smiled. "Jack and Rosie, remember?"

"Of course..." he said. "Have to get used to Cammy for a while I suppose."

"Oh, you will fairly quick I guess." I chuckled while getting out. Lukas jumped on the ground and looked at my house.

"Pika pikachu?" he said while I opened the door of the truck. Jack was still asleep.

"Hey sleepyhead, wake up!" I said to him while shaking him gently. He opened his eyes, released a short "chuuuuu...?" and then got up. I unlocked Cammy for him and moved towards the other side to do the same to Rosie. She didn't wake. I sighed and picked her up. With three pikachu, a bag, stuff, and a pichu I moved towards my house. Oak followed me. I used my key to get in, which I had left at Oak.

The house was empty. My parents weren't home and a note on the table said that they were buying stuff. I had no clue which day it actually was. I had lost track of the week and weekend rhythm after a couple of days. In a pikachu colony, you don't have that... I had only a date on my phone and I looked around.

"Which day is it?" I asked Oak.

"You don't know?" he replied.

"Actually I don't... I lost track of the days after a couple of days inside the colony... They don't have weekend, you know." I said.

"It's monday." he said.

"Worst day of the week!" I said while smiling. Rosie just woke up and looked around sleepy.

"Hello Sleepy, welcome back to the world of the living!" I said.

"Pika pikachu!" she said while she jumped from my arms and sniffed around. Jack, Cammy and Lukas had also entered and Lukas and Cammy looked around.

"Welcome to my house - erm, I mean nest." I said. Lukas looked around and also sniffed around. He could smell human scents... And others... This house was full of interesting stuff. Cammy did the same. She had jumped the table and looked around from a little higher. I could smell food from the kitchen and I knew Jack and Rosie did the same, because they moved towards the kitchen and Jack immediately jumped the sink. He looked around if he could find any pokémon food.

"Uh-uh, Jack, you know you just ate back at Oak's lab..." I said while smiling at him. He dropped his ears and gave me a puppy look. But I knew them so well that it didn't work.

"No, you won't get food yet. If my parents come home you'll get something, alright?" I said smiling. Jacks ears immediately perked up and he looked happily at me. Meanwhile Lukas had found the stairs and looked at it. He climbed it and found himself on the second floor of our house with view to the living room. I walked out of the kitchen with Rosie behind me, which moved towards Cammy. She would probably show her around soon. For now she just sat near Cammy and rubbed her cheek against her. Cammy purred softly and rubbed her new mom back. I smiled when I looked around.

"Where's Lukas?" I said.

"Pika pikachu!" he said from above while he looked at the doors. I moved up the stairs and looked at him. There were a couple of doors on the second floor. One of them contained another corridor with more doors to our bedrooms and one to our bathroom. The door to that corridor stood open and Lukas looked rather confused. He didn't know where to go, but he entered it. He sniffed every door and then wanted to enter one. My room. He scratched it with his paws and looked at me.

"Pikachu-pi! Pika-pi!" he said.

"Hey, you found my room!" I said.

"Pika!" he said while nodding. I pushed the doorknob and allowed Lukas in. He immediately ran in and stopped, sniffing around. I moved towards my bed and flopped flat on my back.

"Ahhh, I missed this..." I said. Lukas jumped my bed and had to regain his balance when he did so, because my bed was kinda soft. His paws sunk into it while he walked it. He was watching me while he walked over to me. I smiled at him.

"This is my real nest, Luk." I said. "I share the other rooms with my parents, but this one is mine..."

"Pika pikachu..." Lukas said as he looked around my room. It was a rather big room with a door that was my storage containing all kinds of old toys, stuff I didn't use anymore or I didn't need at this moment. My bed was against the wall with a desk at the right of it. On the desk was my computer. Under the desk, next to my chair, there was a place for a pokémon. It was the old basket of Bobby, which he loved so much. It was rather big. When I was little, I had sometimes curled myself up in it together with Bobby. It was more of sentimental worth of me. Yet, it was now used by other pikachu (Jack and Rosie) and even their pichu to sleep in. If they didn't sleep in MY bed, of course. Lukas had quickly found the basket because he smelled it and smelled the scent of other pikachu in it and also in my room.

"Pika Pikachu-pi?" he asked me.

"Yup, that's where Jack and Rosie often sleep." I said. "They prefer to sleep with me in bed though. Sometimes they slept there with their children. Like last year when they had a nest of four pichu. But even then they just cuddled up near me, just like you and Cammy did."

"Pika-pikachu." Lukas giggled. When would Maurice finally accept that pikachu always slept together, at all ages?

"Not that I mind though, in the winter it's nice and warm to have them - and you too, by the way - near you. Like my old plush pikachu. I never used it though, I had Bobby..." I said. Lukas smiled at me and continued his inspection of my room. He looked at my computer and decided it wasn't interesting, although the smell certainly was. Then Cammy, Jack and Rosie came in. Both older pikachu immediately jumped on my bed and looked happily at me. They seemed glad they were home. Their second home. Cammy was also looking around and wanted to get up my bed. She attempted to jump, failed because she couldn't reach enough height, and fell down.

"Pichu pi!" she said and immediately Rosie jumped down to help her.

"Pika Pikachu?" she said.

"Pichu pichu!" Cammy said. Rosie grabbed Cammy at her scruff with her teeth and leaped up my bed with Cammy. Then she released her and Cammy had made it up to the bed. She immediately started to sniff around and looked at me, sniffed, looked at Jack, sniffed again and then looked at Rosie. All the scents were there and I was surprised that Cammy was able to pick them up. I had left my home a month ago and Jack and Rose hadn't slept in my bed for over three months. I guess the scents were that strong...

After Lukas and Cammy were both done in my room (Cammy had requested help to climb things multiple times) they went back to the stairs. At the same time I heard sound at the front door. My parents were coming home! Rosie carried Cammy downstairs and Jack quickly followed her. I also moved down when my mother came in.

"Maurice!" she said happily and she immediately hugged me tightly.

"Hi mom...!" I said. She let go and saw the two pikachu with the pichu and a pikachu at the stairs. Her eyes grew furious for a moment but she relaxed. I knew a epic clash between the "dirty little pokemon" and "trained pikachu from Maurice" camp was going on inside her head. But, it looked like the trained part was currently winning with ease. After my mom my father came in.

"Hello, Maurice!" he said while patted my shoulder with his hands and hugged me shortly.

"How are you?" he asked.

"I'm great!" I said.

"Good, I see you already brought over some pikachu!" he said happily. After all, he wanted me to have my own and he also was big friends with Jack and Rosie.

"Hey Jack and Rosie, how are you?" he said while he kneeled down next to them and gently pet them.

"And who is this...?" he said while he grabbed Cammy at her scruff. He lifted her gently and put her down on his hand, which was about four times the size of the pichu. Understandably, the pichu shivered at the sight of this giant person that picked her up just like that. Cammy softly squeaked for help. I stood behind her and Jack jumped my back and climbed my shoulder. He said something to Cammy which made her look a lot better.

"Cammy, meet my father!" I said. Cammy looked up at his face and made herself tiny, hoping he would not see her.

"She's shy, isn't she?" he laughed. He gently stroked her little head.

"And cute. She's absolutely adorable!" he said while moving his head lower than his hand so he could look into her eyes.

"And she's white... How's that possible?" he asked me while turning his hand to look at Cammy from different angles.

"Dunno..." I said. "But that's the reason she's here. She's born inside the colony about three weeks ago and she was abandoned two days ago because of her color. I adopted her so she had a chance to survive. She was chased off the colony by some pikachu but I managed to find her with some help of Lukas."

"Lukas? Who's that?" he said. Whups, forgot to introduce Lukas! I looked back and saw Lukas halfway the stairs, looking a bit nervous and a bit sad.

"Come on, Lukas, don't be shy!" I said. Lukas came nervously of the stairs and jumped on my hand which I had lowered so he could easily jump my other shoulder.

"This is Lukas!" I said while looking at the pikachu. "He's my guide in the colony and also my current partner... He helps me with learning stuff I need to know to behave as a real pikachu."

"Really interesting!" he said while he ruffled through the rodents ears and fur, making him giggle. "Make sure you look after him, he can get himself into trouble!" my dad said to Lukas while pointing at me. Lukas nodded and then smiled at me.

"So, Cammy is now yours?" he asked.

"Yep, she's mine!" I said. "I adopted her and gave her to Jack and Rosie. As soon I'm getting out of the colony I'll really adopt her and keep her. At least, that's the plan." I said.

"Well, that saves me a argue with your mother!" he smiled. "She's still convinced that this was a bad idea and that you should come back this instance, or rather don't return."

"Oh, but I'm doing great in there. The pikachu are really nice to me! I'm their babysitter, I take care of the pichu and I learn them stuff." I said.

"Oh, really?" he said. "I thought the pichu were always the best protected inside the wild?"

"Yes they are, but after a while they need to come out. And if I'm near them... Well, so be it. I won't go away. That sort of went very well so now I'm the favorite sitter of all pichu... They really love me." I said while smiling.

"Ah, like that." he said. "And why did you take Cammy from them again?"

"They abandoned Cammy..." I said. "She was chased off the colony and left to die... Fortunately I could find her before she was seriously hurt. Lukas helped me... I decided to adopt her. She's been abandoned by mom."

"That's rather sad..." he said.

"Oh, Lukas, don't touch that!" I said. Lukas had jumped off my shoulder and was now standing before... Bobby. The pikachu stood on a closet where we could always see it. Lukas was trying to contact the pikachu, which spirit was gone long before he was even born.

"Pika-pikachu...?" he said to me while looking at me with a questionable face, wondering why the pikachu didn't respond to anything.

"Remember I told you about Bobby...?" I asked him. He nodded.

"This is Bobby. He's dead..." I said while looking at the pikachu. His eyes were looking to the other side of the room, his tail was standing straight up, just as his ears. If you would see him from a distance, it would just like he was still alive.

"He's on display. He won't respond to you anymore." I said while Lukas' ears drooped when he looked at the pikachu suddenly feared by it.

"Don't worry, he won't do anything to you. Bobby was a nice pikachu. I'm sure he would like you." I said. "It's just... We couldn't let him go so easy... We were really sad he passed away... This way it feels like he is still here... But we knew he had a great life. He loved us and we loved him." I said while looking at the pikachu, which smiled as usual. Meanwhile dad was playing with Cammy, trying to gently pin her to the ground and tickle her while she attempted to escape his hands. She ran around him, dodged his hands and then got scooped up by him. Cammy rubbed her cheeks against his hands and purred. This man smelled similar to Maurice! I chuckled as dad tickled her and suddenly a bright flash went across the room.

"You should watch out with making her laugh, she's only three weeks old. She hasn't got any control of electricity yet." I said.

"I can see that..." he said startled. "I mean, I was used to electricity but those years without Bobby made my defense for it fell again..."

"Oh, mine went up. At least, I think so. I get shocked so many times by pichu that I don't even feel it anymore." I said.

Overall the stay with my parents was just as I was used to. Oak had left for the pokémon center after we ate cake. First, Lukas and Cammy didn't want to taste it, but after I had some molten chocolate on my hands for holding it too long, I asked Lukas to lick it. His eyes suddenly glowed with passion and love when he tasted the chocolate. He immediately started to beg for more. After seeing that, Cammy also wanted to try. Same happened and both rodents loved chocolate from that moment on. They were licking it from the plates we had used and even after I had licked my own fingers Cammy and Lukas would come to clean them further. After a time I was saved by Rosie that told Cammy to stop. Cammy didn't listen at first, but after Rosie pulled her away she seemed to listen. Lukas however was another story, and I needed to grab and hold him tightly before he would stop trying to get more. After a firm glance he stopped, yet he looked with a provoking glance at me. After that I turned on the TV to watch anything. I hadn't watched TV for a long time and I sat down at my favorite spot before it. I smiled as all pikachu (and pichu) came cuddling up to me. Lukas and Cammy didn't stay long though... They looked at the television where suddenly another person appeared to read the local news. They both flinched and fled behind the chair as the news began with some nifty sound effects and intro-world-wide video.

"Welcome to today's news." the person announced.

"Pika pikachu?" Lukas said while he sat before the TV. He looked at the screen and Cammy jumped the closet the TV was standing on and looked at the back. She looked at it, attracted by the electric current that went through the TV to generate the images on the screen. She looked at the front, the back, and the front again, and then the back again. She wondered how something so thin could house a complete person. She looked at me from the TV screen with a confused look. Lukas was currently doing the same. I laughed at both rodents while I gently pet Rosie which was standing on my legs with her paws on my shoulders requesting cuddles. She rested her body on my belly and chest and sighed happily.

"Already worn out from Cammy?" I chuckled. She looked at me and shook her head.

"Pika pikachu..." she said while laying her head on my chest just under my neck. She nuzzled it and purred, requesting me to cuddle her. I slowly stroked my hand across her head and back, all over her tail and pulling it gently, more like massaging it. She had been missing me. She gently rubbed her head against me. I knew exactly what Rosie liked and that's why she loved me. She closed her eyes and was about to fall asleep when Cammy appeared. She jumped the chair (which was a respectable height) and stood on the sides looking at me and Rosie.

"Pichu!" she exclaimed while she climbed my arms towards my shoulder. Rosie opened her eyes and looked at her.

"Pika Pikachu!" she said while looking at Cammy. Cammy listened and now stood on my shoulder.

"Oh no, you don't want to..." I said but Cammy jumped for Rosie. Rosie grabbed the pichu in mid air, placed her against my chest and started another thorough grooming.

"Isn't she clean enough yet...?" I chuckled. I watched both pokémon. Cammy and Rosie had their eyes closed and Rosie was licking Cammy all over on auto-pilot. Every now and then she would get to the end and lick my hand or finger before she moved on. Meanwhile Jack and Lukas were chatting a bit. Fun thing was, although I couldn't understand it perfectly, I could understand it was about the colony. The way they talked, the tones, the different 'pi-ka-chu's, was this the start of my pikachu language? After a while of listening to them I could not understand it anymore. They were talking too quick for me to keep up. Rosie and Cammy had fallen asleep against me. Rosie was still licking the pichu at a very slow rate, but I was sure she was asleep. Talk about instinct... Even asleep she would groom her child! I smiled at the two.

"Maurice...?" my mom said from the kitchen.

"Yes?"

"Would you like to get me something from the store? I forgot something for dinner..."

"Oh sure. Lukas will like seeing new stuff." I said. Lukas perked up at hearing his name.

"Wanna come with me to see the pokémart?" I said. He nodded happily and stood up together with Jack. I placed Rosie and Cammy on a pillow on the bench. I laid Cammy against mom and laid Rosie's tail around Cammy. Almost like she knew she opened her eyes for a second, looked at Cammy and then snuggled close to her while starting to groom her again (her back this time).

"Really, isn't she clean enough?" I smiled at the pikachu. Rosie looked at me, shook her head, sniffed Cammy and then pulled a face.

"Ah, she hasn't got the right smell..." I said. Rosie nodded and closed her eyes again. Lukas jumped my shoulder.

"Pika-pikachu-pi pikachu-pikachu-pi!" he said happily.

"Who-wo, down boy." I chuckled. After I got some money I left with Lukas on my shoulder and Jack behind me. I took a turn right and started walking across the pavement towards the shopping area. Lukas looked around and was interested in about anything. He had never seen a human city before.

"Hey Maurice!"

I looked to my right and saw my neighbor. He was a boy of my age and his name was Tim. He was hanging out of his window. Jack replied with a happy "pi-KA-chu!".

"Another new pikachu?" he said. "You get them from everywhere, don't you?". It made me smile.

"Actually, this pikachu is a wild one!" I said.

"Wild?" he said. "Wait!" I stopped one moment when the front door opened and he sprinted out of his house.

"If he's wild, can I catch it?" he asked quickly while running up to me.

"You could try..." I said with a sarcastic smile.

"Pokéball, go!" he screamed. Lukas looked at the pokéball and jumped out of the way. The ball hit me, opened, tried to catch me, but failed. The red light engulfed me, failed, and the pokéball fell to the ground.

"That wasn't nice... Lukas, come back!" I said. Lukas returned to my shoulder and watched angrily at the boy.

"Don't worry... You..." I was interrupted by the pokéball hitting Lukas again. The pikachu panicked, but the red light failed again and Lukas looked confused. Me and Jack both grinned.

"Did you really think I would move into the city without registering him?" I said while I took his pokéball from my belt and played with it in my hands.

"I knew you would..." he grinned. "But I always wanted a pikachu like Bobby. He was brilliant. He looks like him!"

"You're certainly right there, Lukas looks close to him." I said while Jack jumped Tim's shoulder.

"Hey Jack, how are ya?" he said.

"Pika-pikachu!" he said.

"That's good!" Tim said.

"No offense, but all pikachu look similar. Although living with them makes you see differences."

"Living with them? What do you mean?" he asked me.

"No one told you?" I said. Both Tim and Jack shook their heads.

"Nope. I noticed you were gone so I asked where you were gone, but your mom and dad wouldn't tell me." he said.

"Hmmm... I don't know if Oak keeps this secret..." I said while thinking about it.

"Anyways, where were you?" he asked while we moved towards the pokémart.

"I am currently living with a group of wild pikachu to do research. I have to try to get to know what it means to live in a pikachu colony. Like how it works." I said.

"How do you mean?" he asked while he looked confused.

"Well, as a human, we have rules. I cannot steal from you, I cannot attack you, we gotta pay taxes and such. You know how that works, don't ya?"

"Yes, but... Ah..." he said.

"Well, I have to check how that works in a pikachu colony. Not the taxes thing, but how the hierarchy is inside there. Oak said he couldn't manage to find out - or at least didn't know yet. So he asked me if I could because I'm so addicted to pikachu and I can handle pokémon so well." I said.

"Well, that's certainly true." he said. "So... This pikachu is... One from the colony?" he asked. "I know this is Jack."

"Yes, that's Jack and this is Lukas." I said. "He's my sort of guide in the colony. He explains me a lot of stuff and he shows me around."

"But how do you know his name? You cannot understand him, can you?" he asked confused.

"No, I can't. Well, not yet. I'm trying to learn pika-language, but it doesn't go very well." I said. "But there's an espeon in the colony that uses telepathy on me to make me understand them. She actually sends her hearing to my brain and makes it understandable for me... At least, that's what she told me."

"Wow, cool!" Tim said. "So you were able to actually talk with pokémon?"

"Yep. I already learned a lot about them. Lukas here for instance likes me because I smell nice and he can feel I don't want to hurt him. He's also my guide in the colony and explains me stuff I don't get." I said.

"Sounds funny, a pikachu explaining you what to do next." Tim said.

"It certainly was strange for me the first days, but you get used to it. Right now I just see pikachu as one of my own... Not as pokémon. I still know they are, but since I live with them and such..."

"I understand... So what do you exactly do?"

"I am babysitter. I check on the pichu of the colony and learn them stuff. The pikachu on their turn also learn the pichu stuff which I can learn and tell them. You can see it as primary school. The pikachu and I are the teachers, and the pichu are the students."

"Sounds fun. So what did you learn from them?" he asked.

"Well, the first weeks were mainly getting used to the pikachu habits and to the pichu and pikachu. But the last two weeks were a lot better, since more mothers and other pikachu accepted me. I'm part of a colony of approximately eighty pikachu and-

"EIGHTY?" Tim almost shouted. "Jeez, I thought you were part of a small colony! I thought you only had about ten or maybe fifteen pikachu and two or maybe three pichu to take care of!"

"Ehm, not really. I'm part of a big colony. I take care of seventeen pichu at the moment. With help of real pikachu babysitters of course... They won't leave me completely alone."

"Well I thought you were having an easy time there, but it appears to be a fulltime job!" Tim said.

"Trust me, it is. Those pichu, and specially the young ones that are born this season, don't have a clue about danger or predators. Although we try to learn them to watch every step, they just can't take care of themselves. But hey, that's why they're pichu..." I chuckled while Lukas nodded and Jack also nodded.

"Maurice the babysitter..." Tim then said like it was in neon-letters on the side of a house. "Nope, in my head it sounds cooler." Tim said while we reached the pokémart and I laughed. Lukas looked at the building from the top of my shoulder. You could clearly see he was impressed by it. We entered through the sliding doors (something that startled him) and were inside the mart. This was the biggest mart of the town. It had multiple stories which were connected with escalators. Besides the usual pokémon stuff like potions, antidotes and pokéballs which were located right at the entrance for trainers, it had also a supermarket at the second floor. The third floor had more pokémon related stuff as baskets, special type-related stuff and even clothes.

"So, what do you think?" I asked while I looked at Lukas. He looked around at all the kind of stuff surrounding him. He jumped down and looked at the different pokéballs, then at the potions. Lukas then sniffed a bottle and quickly pulled a face and took a couple of steps back.

"Pika-chu?" he asked pointing at the bottle while I saw Jack smiling about Lukas' face.

"Those are repels. Designed to keep pokémon away from you." I chuckled. "You like that?" Lukas quickly shook his head and followed me to the escalator.

"Come on buddy, climb my shoulder." I said. "You can't go on the escalator, it's dangerous for pokémon." Lukas however thought different and looked at the moving metal pieces that seemed to come out of the floor, split into different parts to continue their journey to the second floor on a forty five degrees angle. It was a strange thing to see for the little mouse pokémon.

"I guess you weren't kidding when you said he was wild... He's completely obsessed with this escalator!" Tim said to me.

"Of course, almost all pokémon are when they see it for the first time!" I said.

"Well Bobby wasn't!"

"He was 32 when I was born! He already knew them before we had even seen them." I chuckled.

"Yeah, that's true..." Tim said.

"Don't underestimate pikachu... They are way more intelligent than you might think." I said while smiling and picking up Lukas. I stepped on the escalator and we went to the second floor.

"Bobby must have a lot of fun when WE saw an escalator for the first time." I said to Tim.

"Absolutely. I remember I was scared for those metal things coming out of the floor." he chuckled. I laughed.

"Really? I never was scared or anything. I once fell when I stepped on one when I was younger, but after that I never had problems." We reached the second floor, which was the food section. The first section was the fruit section and Lukas ears perked up as soon he saw all the fruit. As soon we left the escalator he jumped from my shoulder to check everything out.

"He's really having the time of his life..." Tim said.

"Yup, and I can't blame him. Supermarkets are always interesting if you never saw one." I said while Jack smiled and went after Lukas.

"Alright, what do you have to get?" Tim said.

"Oh, something for dinner tonight..." I said while walking through the paths searching for a bottle of jam.

"All that that for just one jar of jam?" Tim said.

"Oh, I don't mind." I said while I headed back to pay and to search Lukas. Not surprising, we found him near the fruit section. He looked happily at me while he was chewing on an apple which he got from the basket with apples. He offered me the apple with a couple of bits taken from it. Jack and Tim laughed at me.

I looked at him and shook my head, but I was unable to not smile at him at the same time. He was wild, he didn't know better...

"Lukas, we can't just take apples from the shop just as in the wild... We gotta pay for it!" I said. Lukas looked at me and pulled his head sideways.

"Pikachu...?" he said.

"Ah well, just forget it... But don't take something just like that from here anymore, understand?" I smiled.

"Pika!" he said happily as I offered him his apple back which he happily started eating on my shoulder.

"Jack, you wanna have one too?" I said. Jack nodded happily when I got an apple. He jumped my shoulder.

"Just make sure you tell Cammy she can't take stuff like Lukas does." I whispered to him while I gave him his apple. He smiled at me and took a bit out of it and purred.

"You want one too?" I said as I took one myself and took a bite.

"Sure!" Tim said while I grabbed one. Then we went down the escalator and payed for the jam and four apples. Then we left the building and headed home. Within a record time our food was gone and both pikachu started running in front of us and chasing each other and playing. It was fun to see them go.

"They seem to get along pretty well!" Tim said.

"Yup, they certainly do..." I said while yawning widely and long.

"Tired...?" Tim asked on a funny tone while I got out my phone.

"Yup. It's naptime..." I said while stretching myself and shaking myself a bit.

"Naptime? Aren't you a bit too old for a nap...?" Tim asked me.

"That's what I thought. But the pichu aren't and since I'm their babysitter, I sleep with them. They love snuggling up to me. It's actually pretty funny to have them around you when you sleep." I said. "Anyways, I got used to sleeping after lunch so I'm gonna take a nap when I get home..." I said while Tim looked at me like I was crazy.

"Come in, I want to introduce you to someone." I said when we reached my house where Jack and Lukas were waiting for me to open the door. They happily entered. It was like the short walk had given them both an energy boost. Rosie and Cammy were still cuddled up on the couch and were sleeping.

"This is Cammy, Tim." I whispered. She's a pichu from the colony and she is abandoned by her mom. Jack and Rosie have adopted her until I come back from the pikachu colony."

"Wow..." Tim said softly as he saw the completely white pichu with pink-purple cheeks and ear-tips, sleeping peacefully between Rosie's paws and under her head.

"What happened to her...?" he whispered.

"Abandoned due to her color. She's possibly an albino, but we aren't sure yet." I said.

"Albino? Is that something like shiny?" he asked.

"No, it's when a mammal misses its skin pigments. In other words: the colors of the skin. Because they are missing in the DNA they turn white." I said.

"Interesting..." he said. "What's the chance that happens?" he asked.

"Something close to zero." I said. "I guess Cammy is even more rare than a shiny pokémon."

"Wow, lucky you!" he said.

"Well, lucky... If I wasn't in that colony when she was abandoned she would have died. I felt more like responsible than lucky." I said while moving into the kitchen and preparing the afternoon bottle of milk for Cammy.

"I'm sure she'll grow up fine with you." Tim said while smiling at Cammy and softly stroking her with his fingertips. Lukas jumped the couch and announced his presence with a loud "PIKACHU!" which woke up Rosie and Cammy. Rosie looked annoyed at Lukas and yawned loudly and stretched herself. Lukas tapped Cammy's ears and body, because he wanted to play with her. Cammy got up, shook herself and looked happily at Lukas. Then both of them started running through the living room, receiving disapproving glances from my mom. When the microwave was done Tim entered the kitchen.

"Cammy needs feeding?" he said.

"Yep. Is this the right temperature...?" I mumbled.

"How you're gonna test that...?" he asked.

"Well, guess...!" I said while placing the tip of the bottle and sucking some milk out.

"Yuck..." Tim said.

"Perfect, she'll love this." I said while heading to the living room. "Seriously, would you expect me to stick a temperature meter in there? This is easier and quicker." I chuckled.

"Cammy! I've got something for you...!" I said. Both Lukas and Cammy stopped in their tracks and looked at the bottle in my hand. It took them a split second before they ran straight for me and started begging me to feed them. Tim looked surprised at both rodents.

"Lukas too?" he asked with a questionable face.

"I used him to show Cammy what to do... She was afraid of the bottle. Lukas loves the milk. And the attention, of course..." I said.

"Whaha, a pikachu that likes being treated like a baby..." he laughed.

"If you were a pikachu, you would do exactly the same!" I said.

"Oh no I won't." Tim said.

"Yes you would." I laughed while I grabbed Cammy, which immediately tried to grab the bottle.

"Can I do it?" Tim asked.

"Huh? Oh yeah, sure." I said while handing Cammy over to him. She didn't like this at first, but quickly forgot the worries as Tim put the teat in her mouth and she could drink. Lukas looked from my shoulder and looked rather sad that he wouldn't get anything. Cammy drank the entire bottle before looking tired at Jack, that was now sitting on the couch. Tim put her down and she made her way to Jack and held her head against Jack's belly, looking rather tired. He put both paws on her and started to lick her on her head.

"Awww..." Tim said.

"Yep, I see it every day but it still looks cute." I said while Lukas jumped from my shoulder and made his way to the kitchen. I sat down on the couch and looked at the clock.

"I'm gonna take a nap..." I said while yawning.

"You must get used to that colony life, taking a nap right in the afternoon at your age." Tim said.

"Not really. It's more like taking care of the pichu. Even though I'm not alone, I have to defend them because they are defenceless... The smaller ones, at least. I gotta be sharp all day. sleeping helps to stay sharp." I smiled.

"Except when you're asleep!" he smiled.

"What's why we have guards." I yawned.

"Wanna play a game when you're done sleeping?" he asked.

"Sure, I'll come over when I'm done, which will probably be around two." I said. We sleep one hour, no longer."

"Really?" he said. "Can you control when you wake up?"

"Not control, but my body wakes when it's time. I'm used to it..." I said.

"Well... When you say it..." he laughed, clearly not believing me.

"See ya in an hour!" I said before he closed the door and I was alone with my parents and pokémon. Jack was still licking Cammy, but Rosie was nowhere to be found.

"Where's Rosie?" I asked him. He pointed towards the backyard.

"Pikapikachu." he said. Probably gone to pee or something.

"Lukas?" I asked. Lukas came from the kitchen, his face was all brown. He had found some chocolate which had melt and got stuck in his fur around his mouth.

"Oh, you little thief!" I said on a funny tone while grabbing him from the ground and holding him on my belly which was at a forty-five degree angle.

"Pika-PiKAchu!" he said happily as he started licking around his mouth.

"Yeah, that tastes good, doesn't it...?" I said.

"Pika." he said firmly.

"Alright then..." I said while yawning again. I really should go to sleep right now... I got myself comfortable and held Lukas against me while I dozed off. It would probably save a scolding from my mother later on, if Lukas would steal more food from the kitchen.

After a short nap the afternoon and evening gone by pretty quickly. I played with all pikachu, Tim and Cammy in the backyard, after I played some video games with Tim. Lukas had watched the television with interest. I gave him the controller for a while to drive around in Mario Kart a bit, which he failed miserably. But after some training he was able to keep the kart on the road, while I spammed Tim with blue shells.

After dinner, we were watching a program on TV while Cammy was playing with Jack and Rosie in the corner of the room. They were playing some kind of shock tag which I couldn't really understand yet, but Cammy had a great time and her parents were also enjoying themselves by teaching her the first basics of controlling her electricity, when Lukas came walking from the kitchen. He looked in the direction of Cammy and her parents. He kept staring at that direction and he didn't notice that I was watching him. While my parents were watching the television and the TV was making noise about all kinds of stuff, I suddenly noticed that his expression changed a bit... It went very slowly but Lukas looked rather sad... I wondered what was happening or what happened to him... Lukas kept looking at Cammy, who was still busy playing with Jack and Rosie. All three didn't notice that Lukas was watching them from the other side of the room. Then a soundless tear formed in Lukas eye... It was slowly but surely. It surprised me very much. Lukas, who was always happy and cheerful suddenly was crying. I moved towards the kitchen like I hadn't noticed anything and turned around. I grabbed Lukas which didn't expect a thing and took him to the kitchen quickly. Lukas tried to cover things up but was too late.

"Alright, what's the matter." I said softly so nobody would hear it.

"Chuuuuu..." he said softly, feeling he was caught.

"Don't worry... I'm not mad or anything... Only worried about you... What's the problem?" I said.

"Pika-pikachu-pi..." he said while glancing at Cammy and co.

"Has something to do with Cammy?" I asked. Lukas shook his head.

"Tomorrow, when Espeon can translate, we'll talk about it, alright?" I said. Lukas nodded, took a deep breath and accepted a gentle hug from me.

"Pika-pikachuuuuu..." he said on a sad tone.

"Don't worry, you'll be fine." I laughed while moving back to the living room and back to the TV with Lukas in my lap.

"So, what are you gonna do with Cammy after you're done with your 'research'?" my dad asked me after the TV show had ended.

"She'll come and life here with me." I said.

"Don't even think about it." my mom said. "I accepted Bobby because your dad couldn't release him, but I won't accept another pikachu!"

"No problem." I said.

"And no pichu either." she quickly added. I sighed.

"Come on mom, dad always wanted me to have a pichu to take care of. Why you would stop that?" I said.

"Because I'm fed up with the mess they give." she said.

"Pikachu are among the most clean and social pokémon around. What is dirty about them?" I said.

"Just the mess they give. Jack and Rosie behave themselves, but Cammy and Lukas are the biggest mess. I don't want those around here!" she said.

"Lukas is feral and Cammy is only three and a half weeks old. What do you expect from them? To behave like well mannered men and women from fifty years?" I laughed. "Don't worry. Lukas won't return, at least, not permanent. Cammy will be with Jack and Rosie and they will learn her how to behave herself." I said. Cammy had heard the entire conversation and was looking quite scared at me when she heard she wasn't allowed to stay. But as soon I said she would learn how to behave she had calmed down a bit.

"Aww... You're scaring her..." I said when I saw Cammy's face. "Come here...!" I said while I lured her with my hands. I grabbed her from the floor when she came close and I hugged her.

"Don't ever think I don't want you..." I said. Cammy released some soft chu's and rubbed her cheek against mine and stroked across her head and her back.

"Oh come on, how can't you accept this little pichu. You see Maurice loves her and she loves him." My dad said.

"If she can behave properly she can stay. Otherwise she has to go." she said.

"You sound just like Tommy, the colony leader. He said it the exact same way..." I said.

"Colony leader?" my mom asked. "I thought you would be the leader."

"Errrmmm, no." I said. "Why would you think that?"

"Well, you're the biggest, the smartest..." she said.

"Hmm Hmm..." I said. "And I know all about living in the wild...?" I said sarcastically.

"Well yes..." she said slowly.

"So I can get my food without getting to the pokémart, detect predators by scent, smell if a pikachu is from my own colony and not from a rival one and I can also hear and smell, but also see everything about ten times better than an average human?" I said smiling.

"Don't be ridiculous..." my mother said.

"That isn't ridiculous." my dad said. "You didn't even mention fighting skills or social pikachu life. Those aspects are also very important for a pikachu. It determines your place in the colony." my dad said.

"Pikachu social life? You mean Maurice has a relationship with a female pikachu?" she said. It remained silent for a moment and then everyone in the room face faulted, excluding Cammy and my mother.

"If you'd like, I can try to-" I said sarcastically.

"NO I DON'T! I DON'T WANT YOU TO GET INTO A RELATIONSHIP WITH A PIKACHU!" she almost screamed.

"Calm down!" I was just kidding..." I laughed.

"And I don't want you to keep a secret relationship with a pikachu!" she said.

"You just forbid me."

"I don't care!"

"Arceus, stop this nonsense." my dad said. "Of course he has no relationship with a pokémon, that would be plain wrong."

"I couldn't say it any better!" I said. "The only relationship I have is with Cammy, because I'm her godfather now. After Jack, of course..." I said while Jack smiled at my parents while pulling Cammy on his lap and licking her. I smiled at her and she smiled back and yawned.

"Yep, sleep time..." I said while grabbing Cammy and saying goodbye to my parents. They were surprised that I went to bed so early, but it was sunset which meant time to sleep. I told them I would be gone tomorrow morning as soon the sun would come up, so they said goodbye one more time before I headed to my room with Jack and Rosie on my shoulders and Lukas and Cammy in my hands. After taking my first shower in weeks (I didn't even care to take one since it was so long ago) I headed to my bed and got in. I had to reposition myself and some pokémon a couple of times but in the end everyone was cuddled up to each other and trying to sleep. Cammy had found her place against my face with Rosie next to her and Lukas and Jack were against my belly. I closed my eyes and enjoyed the pikachu against me... It started to feel rather natural for me to have pikachu around me. The heat of their bodies, my own heat, the scents, their manner of showing affection by rubbing against my cheeks, electric flows when they do so, it became just normal for me. And I loved every second of it.

The next morning things went rather quickly. Before I knew it I stood before Oak's laboratory saying goodbye to Jack, Rosie and Cammy. Surprisingly, Oak was there to say goodbye to me.

"Take this with you..." he said while handing me a gun.

"A gun? Are you serious?" I asked him.

"Officer Jenny has discovered that you are in the forests and she insists that you take a gun with you. There are a lot of poachers in there. If you find one or if he finds you, he might try to shoot you because of it. This is purely for self defense."

"Al... Right..." I said slowly. "Well, let's hope I don't have to use it..."

"I also hope you don't have to. But please keep it with you and be careful. If things get too dangerous, we have to quit this." he said.

"Well, I'm not thinking about quitting anytime soon." I said.

"Alright then." he said. "Well, nice to see you and see you in two months, when your parents are back from holiday." he said.

"Yep. I'll come by more often for Cammy. If you see me you can say hi." I said. "Alright Luuk, let's go! The pichu will wonder where we went..." And with that we moved towards the forest. I got Lukas' pokéball and showed it to him.

"Alright Lukas, you're - I clicked reset - free to go!" I smiled. Lukas smiled back and rubbed against my cheek.

"Haha, I like you too." I said while rubbing him back. He jumped from my shoulder and ran towards the forest when suddenly a white flash tackled him down. It turned out to be Espeon.

"Hi there!" she said playfully.

"Pika-pikachu!" Lukas said.

"Hey Espeon!" I said. "Anything happened when we were gone?"

"Not that I know!" she said.

"That's great, because I need your help. Now Lukas, what was happening yesterday eve?"

"Well, I'd not prefer to..." he stammered while looking at Espeon.

"She'll know eventually, she can read minds, remember?" I chuckled.

"What happened?" Espeon asked.

"We'll hear right now..." I said.

"Right..." he said while I sat down in front of him and looking at him in a interested way.

"So why were you crying all of a sudden? Was something wrong?" I asked.

"Well, not really..." Lukas said. "It was more... I was... I cannot really explain it..." he said while looking to the ground.

"You were looking at Cammy, Jack and Rosie playing with eachother and you went sad... " I said. "There must be a explanation for that..."

"Well, I felt like..." he started. But Lukas was unable to finish. He looked towards the ground for a couple of seconds before he retried.

"I felt like... I was thinking back about the time I was a pichu... When my brother was still with me... We also used to play with my mom and dad like that... It was the best time of my life... But after... After..." he said while tears appeared. "After Irwin died my mom and dad were a bit more strict with me, they didn't want me to overcome the same. But just a couple of days later, my dad also disappeared..." he said while a tear fell on the ground. "He was... Just gone... My mom changed from that day on... She didn't want me to be gone and she was very strict for me... I wasn't allowed to leave the colony and I didn't play with my mother like I used to do. She stopped doing what she had been doing when Irwin still was here... I grew up almost on my own..." Lukas sobbed. "When I looked at Cammy... I... I... I was thinking about the time when I was young... When my parents were actually caring for me..." he said while he looked at the ground and sniffed and sobbed.

"Awww, come here." I said to him. He looked at me but then held his arms towards me so I could easily pick him up. I held him against my chest while he cried.

"Lukas, you never told me that..." Espeon said.

"Ssshhhh... Don't cry Luuk... Your parents still love you and care for you..." I said.

"No th-th-they d-d-don't!" he said slowly. "I don't know what happened to d-d-dad, but mom always was nice to m-m-me and that changed when d-dad was gone! She stopped caring for me... I was fed sometimes, but I had to f-find my own food or even ask other pikachu to feed me! It wouldn't take long or I would be abandoned too, just like Cammy!" he said almost angry but with a very sad tone.

"Yes they do... Remember your mother attacking me when I tried to help you? She would do anything to protect you." I said. Lukas looked at me with watery eyes.

"Do you think so?" he asked me.

"I'm sure of it." I smiled at the pikachu. He seemed rather relieved.

"But..." - he started while getting out of my lap - "...that is also why I like you so much..."

"Why that? I'm a human, what has that to do with this?" I asked.

"Well... You... You act like a dad for me... I can sleep with you, you protected me and you also remind me of Irwin... I was a lot more of a explorer and I learned Irwin a lot of stuff... Just as I do with you..." he said while looking at me.

"So..."

"So you're like a brother to me... And you make me think of my father at the same time."

"So I'm two in one." I chuckled. Lukas remained silent. What he had just said to me was very important to him. I couldn't believe that living with him for only one month had already made me this important for the little pikachu.

"So... You were crying because you were missing your brother and your father back there... Now I understand..." I said. "Telling me this clears a lot of things... I actually never understood why you liked me so much from day one..." I said. "I mean, I knew that scent thing wasn't the entire truth, but I would never, ever expect you to see me as father and brother at the same time..." I said.

"Well, to be honest I was scared of you the first days, but when you cuddled me and such when we went to sleep and when you fixed my wounds, I knew you were a nice guy... I felt like I was sleeping with my father and my mother and my brother at the same time... It was the same feeling I got when I was sleeping in our nest... It was like... Like... They were there..." he said. He looked towards the forest for a while and then to the sky, before looking back at me.

"Feeling better?" Espeon said. Lukas sighed.

"Shall we go?" he asked. He probably needed some time alone. He jumped my shoulder and stood against my head with his paws holding my head. But this time it felt different to me... I gently rubbed against him with my head. He didn't expect this but smiled when I looked at him. He rubbed my back and I gently scratched behind his ears.

"Cutie... Let's find the colony...!" I said. "Let's see, we should go right here I believe..." I said.

We came closer and closer to the colony when I suddenly stopped. I heard something. Lukas and Espeon also perked their ears and I got low. We sat there for about two minutes, but nothing came. I got up, still listening closely and looking around me, just as Lukas.

"There's something wrong..." Espeon said.

"You hear the same?" Lukas said.

"Come on, quickly!" she replied while both pokémon dashed for the colony. When we came closer, I suddenly heard cries and I saw flashes.

"What the hell is happening...!" I said. When we entered the colony, my heart stopped. The place was infested with arbok and ekans fighting pikachu. The colony was at war...!

_To be continued._

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><p><em>I guess you didn't see that coming. The next chapter will contain more action, that's for sure.<em>

_Until then, have a nice summer (or winter, when you are in Australia) and enjoy the Olympic Games!_


	16. Warzone

_Short yet action packed chapter. I hope everyone enjoys it! Leave your responds in the reviews, as usual!_

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><p>"Lukas, WAIT!" I shouted while ducking when a thunderbolt shot right past me. Both Lukas and Espeon wanted to attack and had almost jumped in the heat of battle right away.<p>

"WHAT?" Lukas asked in a sort of panic while looked back at me with some kind of determined fear in his eyes. Espeon didn't hear anything and headed for battle.

"Strategy" I said. "Otherwise we're doomed!"

"Don't have a clue what you mean, pika-pikachu!" Lukas said. Espeon was out of reach and didn't translate for me anymore.

"Work as a team!" I said while looking at the colony. There were at least thirty snakes attacking, probably more. I didn't have a clue this group of pokémon was that big. "If you attack one, I'll give him the finishing blow, if I attack one, you give the final blow!" I said while looking at the ground. I found myself a thick yet agile branch which would give me a good punch.

"Got that?" I asked.

"Pika!" Lukas answered while nodding. I stuck out my hand and gave Lukas a final high-paw and then we got into battle. We jumped into the colony grounds and both looked around. A ekans saw that we got into the battle and attacked us. Lukas didn't even hesitate and used quick attack on the ekans, which evaded his attack and turned around to attack him. Bad choice because I followed behind Lukas bashing the ekans with a stick. Lukas quickly turned around and used another quick attack to finish him off. The ekans fell on the ground and received another slam on the back of his head followed by my full weight when I jumped on his neck with both of my feet in an attempt to crush him. Bad luck I could just missed his head. The ekans didn't move and we quickly watched the battle. It was a complete chaos. All pikachu were attacking everyone and other way around. We quickly made our way to Volt, who got hit by a quick tackle.

"Lukas, do Iron Tail!" I said. Lukas complied immediately and jumped in the air, his tail starting to glo...

"Wait, did Lukas know Iron Tail?" I thought when Lukas tail didn't glow and he gently rammed it into the head of the arbok. The arbok wasn't amused and stomped Lukas with his head as soon he touched him. He flew almost twenty meters before hitting the ground. Volt just got up and also attempted a Iron Tail. This time the attack worked, but the arbok evaded it and wanted to attack Volt again.

"Oh no you won't!" I said and just before the arbok attacked I kicked him on his tail. He stopped, looked at me and the launched a poison sting at me. I could barely avoid it, but now it was my turn and I ran towards the snake-pokémon. I gave him one hell of a bash into his head with my just found stick and the arbok fell to the ground but quickly got up, before being attacked by Volt with a Thundershock. The pokémon looked surprised and looked straight at something behind me, but I couldn't tell what it was. Dodging a ekans that tried to tackle me, I finished the arbok off by grabbing his neck and twisting it, breaking it. Handy, those pokémoncenter skills. After I touched him, my hand felt paralyzed, which would explain why he didn't move anymore. I quickly checked around and saw that Lukas was up and fighting already, so I decided to join him. I looked at Volt.

"Wanna team with Lukas?" I screamed when an explosion occurred somewhere further in the colony. Volt nodded and ran towards Lukas and I ran behind him.

We fought a couple of pokémon together before Volt went away to help another pokémon. Lukas and I were standing somewhere in the middle on a relative safe place. I looked over the field. They had attacked with full force, so it appeared. I could see at least three dead ekans which were killed by pikachu. I got a frightful feeling, I hoped that no pikachu would suffer the same fate and that none of them would die. But then I saw something at the other side of the colony. A group of pikachu in a circle and inside... Pichu. At least eight. They probably weren't able to reach the nest on time when the attack hit. A couple of arbok and ekans tried to make their way through the defense that the pikachu had put up by creating a circle around their kit and attacking anything that came close. There was no question which way we would go. A quick look to my left confirmed this when one pikachu nailed another ekans by almost cutting his head off with a Iron Tail. Those pichu had to get out of there as soon as possible. While I was checking the situation, I wasn't paying attention that well and if Lukas hadn't shouted at me, I was hit. I jumped away just on time and evaded a electro ball that was shot by another pikachu but had missed it's target.

"Thanks, Lukas, let's head that way! The pichu must go inside!" I shouted when an explosion occurred near the ring of pikachu that protected the pichu and behind me where the electro ball that had just missed me exploded against a tree. One pikachu had blocked a Poison Sting shot by an arbok with thunderbolt. Both attacks had collided and had exploded.

"Let's go, quickly!" I said. Lukas nodded and quickly ran in front of me and I followed him. Lukas proved to be quicker, manoeuvring easy between all battling pokémon. I had a harder time getting through. Ducking to evade several attacks, stopping several times to prevent myself from getting hit, I made my way to the ring of pikachu. I was happy I made it. Lukas was already there and was defending together with the other pikachu. Vera, one of the main babysitters, was clearly happy to see me.

"They need to get -" kkkkAAAAA- CHUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU! A electro ball shot right over my head and into a incoming arbok that dodged it but was attacked by another thunderbolt.

"They need to get inside!" I shouted. Vera nodded and pointed at the nest entrance. Guarded by a couple of snakes, I understood what she meant. Getting them inside wouldn't be easy.

"Shall I take the pichu while you cover me?" I asked while looking at the pichu. The poor creatures were all close together and didn't look very happy, but rather terrified. I quickly sat down and picked one up at it's scruff. That spooked the pokémon and it screamed and wiggled.

"Hold still you!" I said while I moved it towards my head and putting it inside my sweater. As soon the pichu detected my smell and voice, it quickly crept close and held tight. Their instincts did their job, happily. I grabbed another pichu with one hand and then gave it to my other. Within seconds, I had four more pichu inside there. I placed another on in my sweater and then I had two pichu left, who were now looking up at me. If I placed more in my sweater I wouldn't be able to walk properly so I had to think of something. I then got a idea. Like a real pikachu, I grabbed the last pichu that I had in my hand in my mouth and bit her scruff. The pichu didn't budge, it didn't feel anything. I grabbed the other two quickly and said "GO!" quickly. It didn't sound like "GO" at all, but Vera got the message. She shouted something to the other pikachu which immediately followed me and Vera and covered me, including Lukas. On our way to the nest I saw two dead ekans and also a pikachu which was badly wounded and probably poisoned. I couldn't do anything in this state so I just moved on. When we reached the nest the pikachu in front had managed to strike through the defense that was created there and I quickly sat down and pushed the pichu inside the nest. I looked at Vera.

"Get all pichu together in one room and only defend that room, understand? Like the last time they attacked!"

Vera looked at me and nodded. Another pikachu went along with Vera inside the nest and then the pichu were safe. Just as we moved on into battle with the rest of the group that had protected me, a ekans tried to get into the nest. He was stopped by three pikachu at once that bit his tail and tried to pull him out. The ekans stopped and I grabbed the end of his tail. Because the ekans couldn't really get his grip in the tunnels, he couldn't resist my pulling and I easily pulled him out of the nest before I turned around and swung the snake pokémon around.

"That's for the pichu-" I said while swinging him to the ground.

"-that's for the pikachu -" I said while slamming him to the other side.

"-that's for your attempt to get into THIS COLONY! -" I shouted angrily while slamming the poor pokémon in the ground for the third time.

"-and this is because I don't like you!" I said while I swung the snake towards the ground for a final time. With a large bang he landed on the ground. Just after it landed, three pikachu fried it using thundershock. The pokémon stopped moving after it was almost turned into ashes, only some parts of it's body showing any sign of purple.

"Well done guys, now take them out one by one! You can easily overpower them if you work together!" I shouted before we moved on towards the next pokémon. It was still chaos around us, but the pikachu were slowly winning the battle, and together with this group of strong pikachu, we took out a lot of enemies very simple by attacking them from all sides making them unable to dodge. Since most of the pikachu could evade the attacks very well, there were no problems in attacking any of the snakes, or so it appeared. After a while, the enemies also discovered our tactic and one of the arbok shouted something. After this "order" all of them joined forces and teamed up and continued their fight in little groups. This was very unusual for a pokémon. Arbok and ekans weren't known for teaming up. Pikachu were, when they needed to, but not every time they battled. I looked at the arbok that had shouted at the others. I followed its movements and attacks for a while at a safe location (well, it wasn't exactly safe, but less dangerous) and then I called some pikachu, including Lukas.

"That's their leader..." I said while pointing at the arbok. "If we take him out I think we've won!"

The other pikachu looked at the arbok. One of them said something and the others answered quickly and then they started running towards him, with me behind them. We ran past a couple of pikachu that were too injured to continue. Two of them looked at me with a face that said "help us..!" but I couldn't help right now... It felt terrible to leave them behind like that.

We quickly reached their leader. He and two others had formed a team and were attacking multiple pikachu. With the pikachu team that just joined, the pikachu could circle them. Then they stopped attacking and watched angrily. This glare was deadly, it made me (and some pikachu) shiver on their feet. But some others didn't and I could hear them calling out something. Then, all of a sudden, dark clouds formed above my head. I looked up for a second to realise a thunder attack was coming soon. I got away from the leader and focussed on another ekans, that was busy attacking a female that almost lost the battle. She was poisoned and was barely able to move. She defended herself using Thundershock but she was almost exhausted. I kicked the ekans and grabbed his neck. It was a small one, so I could easily grab him and throw him away. He landed on the sand and decided he wouldn't fight me further so he quickly went to fight somewhere else. The female pikachu looked at me and said something so softly that I almost couldn't hear it. But I had no time to take a break or to help her, because the heat of the battle was moving my direction. A massive thunder attack came out of the clouds and hit the pikachu in the circle with the three arbok in the middle. After a couple of seconds, the attack faded and three pikachu fainted. The two strongest pikachu were still standing and two appeared as if nothing happened and Lukas was barely able to keep standing. The arbok however were harmed but not out. They attacked one of the fainted pikachu all at once. One was thundershocked by one of the stronger pikachu and he managed to lure him towards himself. The other two however attacked the pikachu with bite. I looked at the pikachu which didn't budge because it was passed out, but it got two nasty bite wounds. Lukas saw this, shouted something and leaped into the air. Once he was at his highest point, I saw that his tail started glowing and Lukas nailed one of the arbok by slamming into it, sending it flying backwards and making it faint. After that, he tried to walk towards me, but he was slow and he hobbled slowly. He couldn't think clear anymore. I could see and sense that if I looked at his body language. He managed to get away about ten meters from the circle before the last arbok saw him and started to chase him. Lukas heard him coming and turned around to dodge, but he was no match for the arbok which used poison sting on him, now he was close to defeat. Lukas took the full hit and then remained on the ground motionless before I managed to get to him. Using all my powers I managed to overpower the arbok and defeat him by attacking him from all sides with another stick I found while dodging his attacks, from which one nearly hit me. After I gave him his last blow, he fell to the ground, exhausted and unable to fight further. I quickly checked on Lukas which was still passed out. He was breathing and his heart rate was normal for as far I could feel it right now. I looked at the last arbok that was lured away before he could attack the fainted pikachu. He was almost beaten by the two strongest pikachu from our colony. We had almost won. I sighed and then pain hit me. I wasn't paying attention to anything while checking Lukas. Another arbok took the advantage and bit me in my leg which immediately started to turn a bit purple and felt very painful. I screamed in pain while I tried to get the arbok off me and he let go and prepared for battle. One ekans joined him and they both tried to overpower me. I took a step back and forgot about Lukas. I stepped on Lukas and tumbled backwards on the ground while I tried not to step on him and regaining my balance. Happily I didn't fall hard, but both snakes came closer to me while I tried to crawled backwards with my hand and feet. I could only use one of my feet, because the other one hurted me so bad I didn't want to use it. Both pokémon came closer before suddenly a pikachu jumped over me and used Iron Tail to attack the arbok. His attack was a direct hit and the arbok fell backwards, fainted. The ekans slid a few meters back and hissed fiercely towards the pikachu, which appeared to be... Volt. He looked harmed and had bleeding paws, but he continued his fight while the arbok got back up. He attacked the ekans with agility. The ekans evaded the attack and used a poison sting towards Volt, but he managed to dodge that attack as well by using the agility attack in his advantage. He ran a short circle and launched his attack on the ekans again and this time, the ekans could not dodge. Volt did massive damage to the young ekans, which turned out to be the same one that tried to attack that female earlier. The ekans fainted when Volt finished him with Iron Tail directly after his agility attack. He then turned to me, panting heavily. I ruffled through his fur and his head. He looked quite mad but thankful at the same time and tried to smile at me, but his body was too much in attack mode for him to be able to do that. Then he whined and fell down, one paw was barely able to hold his weight. He lay before me and he released soft screams of pain because of his front left paw. He closed his eyes trying to seize the pain away, but then he gave up and plopped down, still whining. I watched around and saw no more snakes that could be dangerous. The ones that were still there were either chased away or killed by still fighting pikachu. I heared a loud hiss and all the enemies looked at one ekans. Then they looked at one of the arbok, the one that was beaten by Lukas. Then they fled as quick as they could.

I quickly sat down next to Volt and picked him up. He looked mad at me. He didn't like contact with a human, at least, not like this. That would hurt his pride as guard. But he had nothing to say and I placed him on his back on my both legs and gritted my teeth, also in pain. As long I didn't move my leg, it didn't hurt that much, but now I moved it a bit to get Volt comfortable, I felt a heavy pain going through my leg. I also closed my eyes and took a slow breath indicating I was also in pain. Then the pain lowered a bit and I looked at Volt's paw. It was badly hurt with multiple bite wounds and one big cut. I looked at it. It was at least broken. It was also bruised and Volt was unable to use it. I wanted to move the paw a bit, but Volt stopped me.

"PIKA PIKA PIKACHU!" he shouted angrily warning me to not touch that.

"I have to, I need to know how you're hurt." I said while touching it and turning it in a position I could check every angle. Volt wasn't too happy about this and whined and gave me an angry glare, but he didn't resist anymore.

"Broken." I said. "I'll need to fix that up..."

Just when I said that Espeon appeared. She looked in kind of shock.

"You need to come, quickly..." she said.

"I can't really move, I got bitten and... DAMNIT" I said while I moved my leg and pain erupted.

"That looks bad..." Espeon said. I sighed and looked around. More weakened or probably poisoned pikachu were moving around to check if their mates or friends were alright.

"Alright, -" I said while I gently put Volt down, making sure no weight was put on his paw. "- try to walk on your back legs, not on your paws and legs." I said to Volt. He nodded. Then I tried to stand up. It went alright considering I was poisoned. It hurt badly, but using trees and tree trunks I could move around slowly. I looked around and saw wounded pikachu everywhere. A couple didn't move. Hoping that they weren't dead, I thought about what to do.

"Poison..." I whispered. Both Volt and Espeon looked at me.

"EVERYONE!" I screamed. "I WANT EVERY PIKACHU THAT FEELS SICK OR THAT IS INJURED RIGHT HERE WITH ME!" I said while moving towards my backpack. I sat down in my sleeping bag and looked in my first aid kit while two pikachu already came to me. They both looked alright but were both poisoned. I quickly checked the kit and found two antidotes. Both pikachu flinched when they saw needles that were packed sterile, but I quickly grabbed one of them and held him steady. I quickly injected the antidote and almost threw the pikachu aside grabbing the next antidote and injecting the other pikachu quickly.

"Those wounds can be done later-" I said quickly, "- I need to do the badly hurt pikachu first."

"Are you going to..." Espeon started.

"Damnit, no more antidotes..." I thought. "Yes I am...! Where do I get... Oak." I said while getting my phone. I bonked the emergency button and I waited. What would happen? Would Oak come and get me immediately or would he call me? I just waited until his face appeared.

"What is it?!" he said in small panic.

"No time to tell!" I said.

"What happened to you?!" he asked. "You look like you've been fighting!"

"Guess what!" I said almost angrily. "I've got no time to tell. I need antidotes and I need lots of them. Do you have antidotes?" I asked.

"Yes, I do have antidotes in storage." he said slowly while thinking.

"I need... I need..." I said while quickly looking around me. Pikachu were starting to gather. A lot of them had poisonous symptoms.

"Shit... Not the entire colony...!" I thought. I looked over the pikachu and saw about thirty acting like they had poison.

"I need fifty!" I said quickly. "And I need them right here right now!" I added.

"Fifty?! NOW?" he said. "But... But..."

"NOW!" I said. "I got at least twenty pikachu poisoned!"

"Alright alright!" he said. "I'll be there as soon as possible."

"Great, and hurry!" I said before stopping the video chat and looking around.

"There will be a man in a white coat coming soon, don't attack him." I said loudly. The pikachu looked at me but then didn't care. They were too busy with other stuff like cleaning themselves, grooming mates or getting rid of arbok and ekans.

"How can almost the entire colony be poisoned?!" I asked to some pikachu. It was Espeon that gave me the answer.

"It was their strategy." she said. "They wanted to poison all pikachu, or at least most of them and come back later to finish the battle. They hadn't expected us to be that strong."

"Well you guys were strong, but AAARRRGGG..." I whined when my leg hurt again.

"You should go to a pokécenter- erm... hospital..." Espeon said.

"I know, but I can't in this state." I said. "I'll be fine, trust me. Arbok poison isn't deadly for someone like me, it will slowly disappear in a couple of hours. For pokémon like pikachu and pichu it's deadly if you don't give them a antidote quickly." I said while looking at the clock. The whole battle had lasted for about thirty minutes since I had joined it although it felt like forever.

"Are there any dead pikachu...?" I asked Espeon. She sighed and nodded.

"As far I can tell, there are four killed..." she said while looking down.

"Shit..." I said while looking at her. "Who?"

"Well, Sparktail is killed..." she said while thinking.

"Which of the ten?" I asked her. Multiple pikachu were named Sparktail in the colony.

"That aggressive one." she said.

"Damn, he was one of our best fighters!" I replied.

"Yes..." She said slowly and sighed again.

"And the other three...?"

"Tommy died." she said. My heart stopped.

"Our... Our leader died?" I said.

"Yes, they went full force on him. He wasn't able to stand them." she said. "Then an old female died, she couldn't hide herself quickly enough and..." Espeon said slowly.

"And what? Who's the last one?" I asked her.

"It's... Oh, Lukas' mother died!" she replied emotional. I was left speechless.


	17. Moving on

_Hello everyone, new part of Life as a pikachu! I hope you enjoy it. Leave your reviews in the review section as usual! Oh, and if you cry quickly, please get your tissues ready, because I won't hold back this chapter!_

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><p>"She... Died...?" I said slowly without believing the actual words.<p>

"Yes..." Espeon said. "She tried to team up with Tommy and was also killed."

"She and Tommy were mates, weren't they?" I said.

"They weren't but they were at the same time." Espeon said. "She never really accepted him as her mate because she felt it as cheating her first one."

"I thought Lukas' dad died? And besides, pikachu can have multiple mates, can't they?"

"Yes they can. But females mostly have only one partner while males have multiple." she said. "But some females have multiple, it depends on the female..." she added. I sighed deeply.

"Well, they're dead now..." I said while looking around.

"Espeon, can you get all the either dead or unconscious pikachu here for me? I need to check them over and I'll have to tell Lukas his mother died... Somehow." I said while thinking about it. Not the most fun thing to tell someone, even when you think your mother doesn't care about you. I wondered how Lukas would respond to this. He would probably be sad, but would a pokémon respond just as a human? While I wondered that Espeon returned with Lukas in her mouth. She gently put him down inside my lap and was gone again to get more pikachu.

I was surrounded by pikachu from which most were poisoned. You could see that some pikachu really didn't feel good. Hanging ears, laying down on the grass and just staring into nothing, not wanting to move, while others were doing just fine, at least, for now. I checked Lukas, which was still unconscious. The poison sting that defeated him had left some bad marks in his fur, but those would heal quickly. Except the fact that Lukas was completely worn out he seemed fine. The attack hadn't even poisoned him, surprisingly.

While I was looking Lukas over, Espeon returned with Tommy. She put his body in front of me, or what was left of it. Tommy's fur was covered in blood and there were deep wounds everywhere. I turned the pikachu on it's back and while it was clear he was dead, I checked if I could feel anything. I held my finger against his neck and checked if I could still feel his heart rate, which I could. I held my finger before Tommy's nose and mouth to check for breathing, expecting that the heart rate was just some last brain activity before it would also stop. I laid my finger just under his nose so I would feel any breath coming from him. Very softly I felt hot air coming from Tommy's nose. My eyes grew bigger and I looked at the body. Tommy was still alive! But, I knew it wouldn't last long. Even if Tommy would wake up from this, he would have so much pain and his body would be so damaged that he wouldn't been able to live a normal life, except if he would be adopted by someone that would stay with him 24/7. Knowing that Tommy was a wild pokémon and that he probably didn't want to be with humans, I decided to leave him to die. While I hated to do it, it was really the best for the pikachu. I got myself together and placed Tommy besides me in a natural sleeping position when Espeon returned with two other dead pikachu. One was Lukas' mother and one was a old female. She didn't look like she had taken a beating but I couldn't detect any signs of life at her so I placed her next to Tommy. Unfortunately, the same applied for Lukas' mother, except that you could see she had been fighting. She was bruised and had blood spots in her fur. Not as much as Tommy, but still...

Espeon returned with the last dead pikachu. It was more than clear this pikachu was dead, you could see some of his organs were gone. I quickly placed his aside with the 'open' part faced down and Espeon returned with a living pikachu, finally. This one was unable to stand on his two back legs and he was also poisoned. I looked at his legs. One was broken, that was clear, but the other didn't appear to be broken. Whenever I touched it however, the pikachu winced in pain. After gently feeling around his bone I found it was dislocated. With a major push and one long cry of pain from the pikachu I placed the leg back where it should be. As soon it was in place the pikachu looked at me, looked at his leg and tried to move it, which went as it should.

"I'll do your other leg later." I said. He then rubbed his cheek against my belly and with a cute "pikaaaa" he then went back into the crowd, trying to not put weight on his other leg. Espeon returned with two other pikachu who were unconscious, but looked good. After a while, all pikachu that needed care were taken care of when all pikachu looked at me and ran away when they could. Espeon also perked her ears and was gone before you knew. Others just looked frightened and when I looked over my shoulder I sak Oak coming through the bushes.

"Hello...!" he said while screwing around with a box he was holding. The pikachu that ran away took a safe distance from me and looked what that strange guy was doing. Then Oak put down the small box near me.

"You ordered antidotes?" he said smiling.

"Hello and yes, I did!" I said happily. He looked at me and at my leg, at Lukas who was still motionless and at the four dead pikachu. "My god, what have you been doing?!" he said.

"Fighting with a group of arbok and ekans." I said. "When I returned about an hour ago, the colony and the snakes were fighting with each other. They wanted to take over this place and scare the pikachu away, but they didn't succeed. However, they managed to poison almost the entire colony, including me." I said while pulling my leg. I gritted my teeth when I felt pain again.

"But they... My gosh, I already wondered what was happening. I heard explosions when I was inside my lab."

"We had a couple of explosions indeed..." I said.

"Espeon, it's safe, this guy isn't harming anyone." I thought. Espeon appeared right next to me out of nowhere. She spooked both me and Oak.

"Whoa, don't scare me. I didn't know you were there." I said to her.

"That's exactly what I wanted." she chuckled.

"So this is the Espeon you were talking about... " he said.

"Yep, this is her. She makes me able to understand the pikachu. Espeon, this is Oak. He's pokémon professor and he..."

"He's weird."

"He has weird things on his body!"

"He looks like that guy from last year that almost caught Tommy!"

"The one that sounded like a jigglypuff when we thundershocked him?"

"Yeah, that one!"

I looked towards the group of pikachu.

"Do you know him?" I asked.

"He's been here once, but then we chased him away." one pikachu said.

"You've been in this colony before?" I asked Oak.

"By accident, I'd rather forget that." he said. I opened the box and got a antidote. I looked at the pikachu.

"Alright, who's the first?" I said. All pikachu took another step back at the sight of receiving an injection. I sighed.

"Come on guys, this is gonna make you feel much better." I said while grabbing a pikachu that didn't even had the energy to flee for Oak or a injection. The pikachu looked terrified but I quickly calmed it.

"It'll be done in no-time." I said while getting the pikachu ready. I grabbed the injection, injected the pikachu with medicine, and laid him next to me.

"You'll feel better in a minute." I said. The pikachu just looked at me like I was crazy. But after a minute, he stood up and tried to walk. After seeing him on the ground not even able to flee for an unknown human, this was quite extraordinary. It was still wobbly, but he could walk.

"See?" I said to him and to the other pikachu. "Nothing to worry about. Who's..." I said but grabbed my leg when pain erupted when I tried to move it.

"DAMNIT." I said. Oak, standing right behind me, looked at my leg.

"You have to see a doctor..." he said.

"No I don't." I said while getting another antidote.

"Those are for pokémon, not for humans!" Oak warned.

"We'll see about that." I said while I injected myself.

"Are you insane?! This could be deadly for you!" he said.

"No it won't, it's HP-type. Look here." I said. "I also prefer the special H version, but this one is usable in emergencies.

"I didn't know that these existed..." he said. "I have never really gotten myself into pokémon medicine... I know which ones there are and what they do, but I didn't know there were antidotes for human and pokémon... I've got lab assistants for that!" he smirked.

"You don't know much, do you?" I said jokingly.

"Hey, don't say that. I'm not like nurse Joy." he replied. "Do you know how a pokéball works?"

"Uhm, you throw it, the pokémon gets sucked in and is caught?" I said.

"Yeah, but the converting to digital data part." he smirked.

"No... I don't." I said slowly.

"Well I do and let me tell you, that isn't easy." he said while I gave another pikachu an antidote.

With help of Oak, the rest of the pikachu were healed up quickly. Two more pikachu had woken up from their slumber and were now recovering. Lukas however was still sleeping. I sighed when I held him in my arms. The pain in my leg was gone and walking was normal again. I didn't feel sick or anything so the antidote had worked.

Later, in the evening, Oak was gone and Lukas was still asleep. He was the last pikachu to wake up, but for now, he still wasn't moving. Even Volt was worried about him, which said a lot according to one of the females that was with me. Espeon's head was on my knee and Lukas was between my legs while we watched the sun go down between the trees.  
>"I'm happy this day is over..." I said.<p>

"Yes... I hope Lukas will wake up soon... I'm really worried..." she replied while moving her head up and looking at Lukas.

At the start of the afternoon the pichu were released outside. Some of them looked around at the snake bodies that were still around. I abused the opportunity to show them a arbok and explaining them what was the most dangerous part of them. Most pichu were a bit scared to get outside, but as soon they saw I was back (I had been gone for two days) they came for me and got all over me as some kind of greeting. It felt really good to have them back. I'll miss them when I go home, but I just won't think about that yet.

Some pikachu were very busy cleaning up. It was interesting to see how pikachu got rid of death pokémon. Instead of digging a hole and putting them there, they took them out of the colony and placed them on some sort of clearing. About five minutes after we left, the first scavenger had arrived to eat the dead bodies. They saved the body of Tommy, and, on my request, the one from Lukas' mom so he could say goodbye in a proper way.

When it went dark and I had said goodnight to the pichu, I went to sleep. Espeon slept near my bag and I placed Lukas next to me, keeping him warm. For the rest my bag was empty, whilst normally there would be at least three pikachu inside. After checking Lukas was still breathing and his heart was still pounding, I laid down next to him and fell asleep.

"Of all pikachu, why does Lukas' mom have to die...?" I thought. "Just as I had restored his trust in her... I'd rather had someone else to die..."

I watched myself.

"Selfish..." I said softly.

"I was about to say that..." Espeon replied.

"I know, it's just... It's never good to lose someone and I didn't lose anyone of my family yet. Lukas has lost everyone now, he's the only one left. His brother died, his friend was killed, now his mom and even his dad is gone." I thought, knowing that Espeon would be able to hear it. She sighed.

"Let's just go to sleep..."

"Yeah, that's probably the best. Won't be a nice day tomorrow... Telling him that mom died..." I sighed again. "I just hope he wakes up soon... If he doesn't before morning I'll take him to Oak."

"That's OK with me... I hope he will be alright..." she said. And with that we both closed our eyes and went to sleep after a long day of fighting and nursing.

* * *

><p>It was still night when I suddenly woke up. I don't know why I did, but I checked the time and saw it was around 2AM. I hadn't been sleeping long. I stretched myself a bit and wanted to go back to sleep when I suddenly noticed that Lukas... Lukas was gone. I checked in my bag to see if I accidentally pushed him away, but this wasn't the case. He was gone.<p>

Wondering where he went, I got up and looked around. One of the guards should have seen him leaving... I walked over to the colony entrance when one pikachu walked up to me and jumped my shoulder. I couldn't see who it was, but I knew it was one of the guards.

"Did you see Lukas leaving my sleeping bag?" I whispered to him. He nodded and pointed towards a place in the forest.

"That way?" I asked. The pikachu nodded.

"Pika-pikachu..."

"Thanks..." I said to him before he jumped from my shoulder and I left in the direction the pikachu pointed. It was the exact same direction from the corpse of Lukas mom. To prevent predators eating her and preventing a terrible smell at the colony I had placed her inside a towel and placed her somewhere safe not too far from my bag.

I walked towards the body of the mother and when I walked around the corner of a tree into a small clearing, I saw Lukas sitting next to his dead mother. He had unwrapped her from the towel and he sat right next to her. I stood behind him for a couple of seconds, but it seemed like it lasted for ages. Lukas didn't move at all and he didn't even notice me, or so it looked...

When I moved closer towards him he still didn't notice me. I sat down next to him and put my hand on his side and against my head. He almost jumped and turned around, looking at me.

When I could see his face it was wet from tears. He looked at me for a moment before turning around and looking at his mom again. His breath was irregular, quick and uncontrolled. From closeby, I could see his entire body was shaking and soundless tears were rolling across his cheeks and into his fur and onto the ground. I sat next to him and his mother and watched the poor pikachu crying. I gently stroked him across his ears and his back, but it didn't seem to relief the pain Lukas currently had. I moved a bit closer to the pikachu while I grabbed his paw with one hand in an attempt to comfort him. This seemed to work a bit better because Lukas looked at me and back at his mom before he accepted my offer of being lifted and being placed against my shoulder and head. I continuously stroked him across his back when Lukas started to sob and buried his face deep into my shoulder.

Somehow I wasn't able to talk and I didn't need to. Lukas stopped crying for a second and wanted to be put down. I placed him next to his mother where he watched her again. He tried to nuzzle her, trying to get her to wake up although he knew he was too late. He just didn't want to believe she was dead. He looked at me in an attempt to make me heal her somehow, but her injuries were probably all inside and not like Tommy outside her body. I doubted if even Nurse Joy could heal this pikachu. I looked at the ground before I made eye-contact with Lukas and shaking my head very softly, telling him I couldn't do anything to save her anymore. Lukas eyes grew a bit larger and he did another attempt to wake his mother by pushing against her body.

"Pika..." he said slowly. "Pika-chuuuuuuu..."

She was lifted a bit and just rolled back in the same position she was in before, not responding to anything her son did to her. Lukas even tried to power her up by giving her electricity, but after even that didn't work he gave up after several tries when tears formed again when he realised his mother really had died. He looked at his mother one more time before he started sobbing and crying again. He looked at me and walked over to me. He climbed my lap and watched his mother from there, still crying soundless tears, while being endlessly stroked by me. I couldn't really think of something different to do anyway. I don't know how long I've been sitting there, but I didn't care either.

It was early in the morning when the sun rose. I stopped stroking Lukas' fur and watched as it sun beaming through the forest, creating a sort of ghostlike effect through the morning fog.

"Lukas... Shall we go back to the colony...?" I asked gently and slowly making sure I wouldn't say something wrong. The crying had stopped over the last hour and he had just cuddled close to me. The last half hour he had been against my chest and he had just been doing nothing except looking at me and his mom sometimes before cuddling close to me again.

He looked at me and nodded before releasing a deep sigh. I put the towel around his mother again. We probably would move the body to the clearing later this day. We arrived back at my sleeping bag where Espeon was still asleep. I woke her up by gently pushing her back and forth. She looked at me and looked at the sun.

"Is it morning already?" she said before getting up and seeing Lukas.

"He already knows -" I said inside my head "please don't start about it."

The rest of the morning Lukas was very silent. He wasn't really present and whilst he normally was around me and the pichu, he now sat somewhere in a tree watching us. I had been checking him multiple times, but he didn't want to come and play with me or the pichu. It would probably be like this for a couple of days, so I accepted it. Meanwhile I heard that the pikachu were busy with all kinds of stuff. Their colony leader had died, so there had to be a new one. Multiple males were already fighting for dominance over the colony. Two males had even challenged me for a fight, but I had turned them down saying that I wasn't interested in being the colony leader. Not because I was not interested, but mainly to prevent problems with the pikachu in general.

Two days later Lukas was still in a very sad mood. His mother was eaten after we lied the body in the same clearing where the pikachu placed them. The next day it was completely gone already. I decided we would visit Cammy to see how she was doing and to give Lukas some time to be alone without other colony pikachu around him. Maybe it would do him good. On a early morning, three days after his mother was gone, we left for Oak's laboratory. Lukas was on my shoulder and he was still a bit sad, although he looked a bit better.

"How you're feeling...?" I asked gently as we walked towards the path of the forest. Lukas sighed and looked down.

"Hey, don't be so sad..." I said as I gently stroked across his head. "I know it must be hard to lose your mom... But I'm worried that you'll never feel happy again if this keeps up."

"Chu..." he said sadly before sighing again and looking down to the forest floor.

"Maybe Cammy will make you feel a bit better." I said. Lukas ears perked up and he looked at me.

"Pika-pikachu pi?" he said.

"Yes, we're gonna visit Cammy. I promised her I would visit her and I want to see how Jack and Rosie are doing with her."

"Pi-KA!" Lukas said. His voice was much happier already, just as I expected. I suppose I was right when I suspected that Lukas and Cammy liked each other very much. Almost like brother and sister. It didn't take long before we arrived at Cammy's place. It was early in the morning so she was probably still sleeping, but you could never know with young pokémon.

I entered the mini-forest and looked for the entrance of the nest. It was well hidden and I had always trouble to find it. Lukas however had no trouble at all. He simply pointed towards the nest and then disappeared underground.

"Lukas, wait, I think you shouldn't enter... just like that..." I said to him knowing that he didn't hear me. It didn't take long before I heard some noise inside and it didn't sound very good. I saw flashes of electricity and then Lukas quickly ran out of the nest followed by Jack which chased Lukas and gave him a death glare while Lukas fled behind my legs and watched Jack from there with hanging ears and tail. When Jack realised it was me and that the pikachu was Lukas, he changed completely and looked rather guilty.

"Good morning, sorry for waking you up so rudely..." I said while I rolled my eyes at Lukas which stepped before my legs instead of behind them and looked at Jack. Jack sighed and mumbled something to Lukas which nodded and seemed happily again. Jack decided to not make a problem of it and looked at us with a questionable face.

"We're coming for Cammy!" I said. "I promised her to pay her a visit every once awhile so here we are!"

"Pika-pikachu..." Jack said with drooped ears.

"Hmmm?" I said. "What's the matter, Jack?"

"Piiiiiii..." he said, evading the question.

"Where's Cammy?" I asked him. "And where's Rosie? She should be here as well...?"

"Chuuu... Pika-pikachu..." he said while he looked at the nest for a second before looking back to the ground rather sad. A scared feeling slowly made his way across my feet towards my head.

"Jack, what's the matter?!" I said while I sat on my knees in front of him. "Where's Rosie? She's supposed to be here, with you. And what about Cammy?"

Jack looked away from me. I forced him to look at me.

"I'll just assume the worst. Is she dead?" I asked him. Jack eyes widened and he quickly shook no. Well, at least she wasn't dead.

"Pikachuuuu..." he said.

"Is she at Oak's laboratory?" I asked him. Jack nodded and I stood up and turned around to go to the lab. I took a couple of steps when I looked back. Jack remained where he was, whilst he would normally always follow me back to Oak's place.

"You not coming?" I asked him. Jack looked at me for a second and quickly turned around and hid himself inside the nest. Lukas looked at the strange behaviour of the older pikachu before turning around to me. I shrugged my shoulders and headed to the laboratory with Lukas in tow. I wondered what could possibly have happened. Young pichu could easily catch diseases or anything or could have medical problems, but Cammy had survived the first three weeks which were the most critical. She didn't show any signs of anything wrong as long I was with her, but you could never know...

We arrived at the laboratory and saw it was locked. There was nobody there, so we had to wait until someone would arrive. Happily it didn't take long before one of the assistants of Oak arrived and opened the lab. After asking what happened to Cammy she smiled and pointed me at a room where Rosie was sleeping with - to my relief - Cammy. I moved closer with Lukas on my shoulder and moved my head closer to her. She was still asleep and breathing in a gently and regular rhythm.

"Cammy..." I gently whispered to the little pichu. No response. Lukas looked what I was doing from next to the little basket Rosie and Cammy were in.

"Cammy..." I said again, a little louder this time. Still no response from Cammy, but Rosie had opened one eye to check who was waking her and Cammy up. I looked at her and raised my eyebrows twice. She smiled and looked at my attempts to wake Cammy up. I placed my finger under her chin and started to rub it gently. Cammy moved a bit and purred when she felt the attention before placing her head closer to my finger to allow me to rub more efficiently. She didn't bother opening her eyes but continued purring.

"You're freaking adorable..." I whispered to myself.

"Cammy...!" I said, this time on a normal tone. Cammy opened her eyes and looked at me. I smiled, expecting her to jump and trying to hug my face. But no, Cammy looked at me sheepishly and closed her eyes again.

"Hey, sleepy, wake up!" I said. This time Cammy opened her eyes and used her paws to rub her eyes before looking at me.

"PICHU-PIIIII!" she exclaimed before jumping up and running towards me.

"That took you long enough!" I said before receiving a hug from Cammy who had jumped my sweater and climbed my arm towards my shoulder where she was rubbing her head against my neck and chin. I picked her from my shoulder and gently rubbed her face. Playful sparks emitted from her cheeks and she squeaked soft and cute.

"Ah-haha, I love you too..." I laughed at her. "So, how you're doing?" I said while looking at her and Rosie.

"By the way, what's wrong with Jack? He's acting so weird..." I said before Rosie sighed and gave me a "don't start about it" look.

"Oh dear, what happened." I said smiling before I placed Cammy next to Lukas. Lukas took a step back when Cammy jumped him and almost managed to push him over in her enthusiasm. I smiled at the sight of both pokémon playing with eachother. Lukas provoked Cammy to some kind of wrestling match. Me and Rosie looked at it while I didn't notice that Oak entered the room.

"Ah, Maurice! I already wondered who was in here." he said.

"Hey, Oak." I said while I ripped my eyes of the two pokémon. "Just visiting Cammy to check on her. What happened to Jack?" I asked him. "He scared me when he didn't want to tell me where Rosie and Cammy were. I thought they were dead or something."

"What? Oh no no no!" he said laughing. "No, Cammy just got attacked by a pidgey when she stole it's food, but he failed to protect her. She got a cut in her paw and he feels guilty about that. It was back here when we fed some birds, Cammy wanted to get some of the bread that was supposed for the pidgey and one of them got mad at her and attacked her and Jack was just one split second too late."

"That's all?" I said. "And Rosie?"

"Oh, she was eating, Jack was taking care of Cammy."

"Ah, that explains. How's Cammy?"

"Oh, she's fine. A bit startled, but she's all right. No need to worry about her." he said.

"That's good. I wasn't really worried about her when she started playing with Lukas..." I said while looking at both pokémon. They were now playing some kind of shock game. Lukas was sparking his cheeks and Cammy followed him. Then Lukas sparked his cheeks more and more until he engulfed his entire body in sparks. Cammy looked at him in disbelief but then tried herself. She managed to get sparks around her cheeks and around her head, but not around her entire body. She sighed sadly before Lukas smiled and moved closer. He powered her up using his own electricity and showed her again. She tried again and this time she managed to cover her head in electricity. I laughed at the sight. I saw this kind of training every day back at the forest. Shock tag, trying to fry random things with electricity (including me), or just try to tickle each other with electricity that was stronger than your opponent.

"Great to see this..." Oak said without disturbing Cammy. "Just wonderful to see that Lukas is trying to learn her to control electricity!"

"Yeah, since I became the pichu caretaker he also came a bit addicted to them. He loves to show off things he can do which they can't." I said while smiling. After an hour of chatting about the rest of the battle that was fought between the pikachu and the arbok I decided I was going back to the colony. We said goodbye to Cammy and brought her and Rosie back to Jack. After telling Jack he should stop feeling miserable (the cut Cammy got was so tiny it already healed) we departed for the forest. Lukas looked a lot happier after visiting Cammy.

While making our way through the forest Lukas perked his ears a couple of times. He looked around uncomfortably, like there was something that he didn't like.

"Is there something wrong, Luk?" I asked.

"Pika-pikachu-pi, pika-pi..." he said while looking around. He stared at the ground while I saw him perking his ears again, focussing on his senses which were much better than mine. I stopped walking and everything was silent except the gentle rustling of the leaves in the wind around us.

"Pika..." Lukas said while he sighed.

"Probably another pokémon." I smirked when I continued walking towards the colony.

*rustle*

I stopped and looked around. Lukas looked straight into the direction of the sound.

"It should be here somewhere..." I heard a voice.

"Well, where is it?!" I heard another voice. I decided it would be better to hide ourselves and I got down behind some bushes. Lukas stood before me and we both looked through some thick bushes towards the source of the voices. Two males stood before us, they were a fair distance away. They were looking at a map and they carried... shotguns. I recognized one of the men, it was the one I met earlier when I was getting food with Lukas and Espeon.

"Where is that pikachu colony?!" the one asked.

"SOMEWHERE AROUND HERE, I TOLD YOU ALREADY!" the other said. "Now keep quiet or they'll hear us..."

"I want to shoot something today, not look for a pikachu colony that doesn't exist." the one said.

"Me too, me too! I know it's frustrating but I'm sure it's somewhere around here..." the other said. "Trust me, we'll shoot pikachu today. They've always been profitable..." he said while putting away his map. "Come on, let's continue our search..."

"If you say so..." the other said before both continued their way to our left, not in the direction of the colony. Lukas wanted to appear on the small clearing, but I stopped him.

"Let's wait a couple of minutes to ensure these 'pokémon rangers' are gone." I said. "Jerks... Pretending to be pokémon rangers..."

A couple of minutes later we continued our way to the colony and about five minutes later we arrived there. The men were pretty close. I immediately told the guarding pikachu that he should watch out for those men and I warned some other pikachu too. Within minutes the whole colony knew about the threat.

I decided to not scare the pichu but I decided to start training them on hiding yourself in case of danger. Plus, I wanted to train myself in disappearing just in case. Maybe the older and more experienced pikachu could teach me some tricks...

* * *

><p><em>Yup, really getting into this now. I tried to make Lukas look as sad as possible, I hope I did a good job! Please leave your reviews!<em>


	18. Leading the way

_Hello all, another chapter! I know I was a bit late updating last chapter, but real life is more important than fanfiction, to be honest. Sorry for that. I'll probably update more, but less longer chapters. I hope you'll understand._

_That aside, let's move on with the story. And hints, tips, critiques, or other stuff can be PM'ed or left in a review!_

_And I recently got another email asking where I would keep the transformation stuff: Do not worry, it WILL come. But just not yet. I think the newer chapters are gonna span more time than the first 18 altogether._

_Since I have to keep track of the time in this story (otherwise my other storyline, Life OF a Pikachu, won't fit in) I have some trouble placing everything on it's right place._

_Anyway, I hope you like this chapter. Again: If you got idea's, questions, or requests, don't feel shy to email me!_

* * *

><p>It was hard to believe that I just was with the pikachu for just one month and a week, it looked so much longer. Since I joined the pikachu at spring, temperatures were rising. Although they were still low at night, over day it was a very pleasant temperature and ideal for daily activities. Along with Lukas I had started to train the pichu in hiding themselves in case of any danger. Not only the pichu trained in hiding, I also tried to train with them. But since I was much bigger than a average pikachu and huge compared to a pichu, I couldn't hide myself that quick in a bush or in the grass like they could. Instead I was training my movement across the forest, making myself able to move across forest much quicker than I could or than a average human could. I was now able to jump branches within arm reach by running into them, grab them, swinging upwards and stand on the branch and then keep still (after a lot of training all day and a lot of falling down, which amused the pichu since they showed off that they actually COULD climb trees and stay up there).<p>

Running through the forest went a lot better for me now after Lukas' help. Hiding went quite good after some pikachu helped me quickly finding locations for me to hide. And then you had the pichu which were getting better and better at hiding themselves. I trained them in finding places where they could hide quickly. This worked out quite well, so good in fact, that sometimes I had trouble finding them. I learned them to hide themselves as soon I would shout "HIDE!" which I regularly did.

While we were training, Lukas and I had seen the two hunters again. They were searching around the colony, but they didn't go the right way just yet. I hoped they would never reach the colony but as soon they were out of sight we headed back to the colony and told the guards to be careful and to be extra alert for those guys. Volt wasn't guard anymore now he couldn't use his paw properly. It would need some time before it would be fully healed.

So, a couple of days later, I was playing around a bit with the pichu when there was rumor at the other side of the colony.

"We found it!" I heard someone shouting. I recognised the voice. Multiple pikachu looked in the direction of the voice. They were here, and the pichu were outside, clear to shoot! Happy I did that training with them!

"Hide!" I shouted whispering, making sure the pichu could hear me but other people couldn't. Some pikachu looked at me. Why was I hiding...? What was happening? After making sure all pichu were gone I got myself out of sight using the knowledge I had gathered the last couple of days. I wasn't a moment too soon. I heard a gunshot followed by some pika-screams when all pikachu suddenly ran everywhere, some scattering in all directions and some quickly diving into the nest. I suddenly saw Lukas coming right my way with some other pikachu, he saw me (damnit, I'm not hidden good enough) and hid himself right next to me. Another gunshot and more screams, but almost all pikachu were gone by now.

"How could you miss that one?" I heard.

"What about you, you had a complete herd to hit and you still manage to miss..." I heard another voice.

"Whatever, let's head back and try again in a couple of minutes. I think they'll be back pretty soon. And where were their pichu? I can't believe they're underground on a day like this just after spring start. There should be tons and tons of pichu right now..."

"Pichu aren't profitable enough, just focus on those damn pikachu." the other said.

"You only think about money, don't you?" he said.

"Oh shut up." the other replied before they stepped out of the colony and moved away. We got up and looked at the place where the males disappeared.

"Alright, come on out guys..." I said. Most pichu emerged from everywhere. Even one that was right next to me which I didn't even spot.

"All pichu inside now!" I said before pushing them into the direction of the nest. After they were all inside, I looked around. Most pikachu were coming back to the colony and most were immediately fleeing inside the nest (mainly females checking on their pichu). I looked around to check for some strong males. Maybe we could outsmart those one way or another... But then again, they had guns. But on the other hand, I had an entire pikachu colony. Maybe I had to use my gun for the first time... It seems Jenny was right about the hunting. I moved to my backpack and got the gun out. I never used a gun and suddenly I wondered why Jenny would be so stupid to give me one without even training me in using one.

"The heck..." I thought aloud while I got the gun out. Using all my movie experience I managed to load it. I took it in my hand and enabled the safety trigger (or what I believed was the safety trigger). I then aimed at the nearby tree and tried to shoot. It wouldn't shoot. Apparently it was the safety and I practised enabling and disabling the trigger just in case. Lukas suddenly popped up and jumped my shoulder. He watched the gun I was holding and tilted his head. He sniffed the gun before giving me a dark glare.

"Pika-piKACHU!" he said before pointing at it.

"Yes, I know. Don't worry, I won't use it to kill one of you... Officer Jenny wanted me to have one just in case, and I think this is such a case." I said. "Lukas, I need at least eight strong males that aren't afraid for those guys and that want to try to chase them away with me."

"Pika...? Pika-pikachu?" he asked.

"Just do as I say, I got a plan." I said. Lukas looked at me one more time before running off towards the nest. I moved towards the place where the men had disappeared into the woods. I could clearly see that they weren't very smart. You could easily follow a path where they had been walking, so finding them wouldn't be a problem. I suddenly remembered that I should call Jenny. Hunting these pikachu was illegal after all and Jenny would be more than happy to come and get them if my plan worked. I checked the numbers list and it appeared that Oak had placed the number of Jenny inside my phone already. I dialed the number.

"This is Viridian Police, how can I help you?" I heard. After explaining the situation Jenny said she would be on her way immediately. I looked at the colony and saw Lukas returning with about twelve pikachu.

"Perfect..." I thought. They stopped before me.

"Pikachu...?"

"Pika-pi?"

"I'll explain, one second." I said before getting on my knees.

"These men -" I said while pointing at the forest "- are dangerous. They want to kill you. If you listen to what I say, I don't think anyone will get hurt." I said. After explaining my plan to them we moved into the forest. It didn't take long before we saw the males. They were sitting in a clearing and smoking some cigarettes. I sat down.

"You know what to do." I said before all pikachu quietly went away. I moved into the clearing. Both men looked at me.

"Oh hello there! I thought I heard someone here!" I said as surprised as I could.

"Well well, if that isn't the pikachu boy from the other day! Are you still looking for pikachu?" he asked.

"Yup, I am. Or rather, I'm again. I stopped for a couple of weeks but now I'm back since I have some free time." I lied.

"That's great, because we're looking for them too." he said. "It appears that raichu I was talking about earlier - do you remember? (I nodded) - has been accepted into their group, or at least, so we believe."

"Is there a pikachu colony around here?!" I said.

"Yes, you just came from it. That big clearing is a colony." he said, pointing at the colony.

"Are...! Are you serious?! I just walked there and I didn't see a thing! Maybe one pikachu, but it fled this way..." I lied as best as I could before looking back at the forest and turning back to the poachers again.

"So, who is that?" I asked friendly, offering my hand. He shook it.

"He's a friend of mine, not very talkative. He is a hunter - legal-" he said when I gave him a death glare "- and he said he wanted to have the raichu if we need to kill it. I haven't been searching for a couple of days now but some people reported that the raichu was about here. And they probably were right, because I saw some raichu marks a while back.

"Raichu marks?" I thought. "Hmmm, we should be more careful when going out of the colony..."

"But what about the shooting? I heard two shots just right now, did you do another test shot?"

"Ehm..." he said. "Ye-Yes yes, we both had to clear our guns from dirt." he said, clearly lying. I hoped they didn't know I was lying right now.

"Oh, because I thought you might be on the hunt... I hope you aren't..." I said while glaring at them.

"No we are not." the man said, clearly annoyed.

"So that shot that barely missed that pikachu back there was a test shot?" I said, now looking at both men. "And that other shot, that 'could-hit-all-the-pikachu-in-the-colony-but-still-missed' shot?!" I said, now with a more angry tone.

"What the - how do you know that?" he said before both stood up and grabbed their guns.

"Get your noses out of our business, now go away." he said. But I didn't move. I looked right behind them and saw Lukas looking at me. He raised his paw and gave me a sign.

"Why? Just so you can continue your killing among this pikachu colony?" I said.

"You're getting really annoying. Now go away or I'll have to force you to go away." he said, pointing his gun at me. I took a step back.

"You can't shoot me...!" I said, a bit afraid and walking backwards.

"Yes we can, if you don't fuck off right now...!" he said. He grabbed something in his coat. It were bullets. That would mean...

"NOW!" I shouted.

"What do you mean 'NOW' and... WHAT THE HECK!" he shouted when suddenly twelve pikachu surrounded us and sparked their cheeks dangerously. A couple of them growled angrily at the men, just as I had instructed. He quickly wanted to load his gun, but before they could I warned them.

"Drop your weapons!" I said to both men. They stopped loading, looked around but then decided it was smarter to stop loading and to do as I said.

"What is this?!" he said.

"These..." I said while moving a bit forward. "...are the pikachu from the colony you just tried to attack."

"How do you... What the fuck, why do they listen to you?!" he said looking around at the pikachu.

"Because I joined their colony a while back." I said. "And because I don't try to kill them, unlike you."

"What the hell, I'm just gonna shoot these guys..." he said quickly and getting his gun and starting to load.

"Thundershock!" I said. Twelve pikachu charged thundershock and hit both men. Even though they were wearing rubber boots, they screamed and dropped their weapons and collapsed to the ground. I quickly moved closer and threw their weapons away behind me so they couldn't reach them.

"You're as annoying as hell..." the man said.

"And you're trying to kill pikachu from my colony!" I said before looking at him from above.

"We don't like people like you, so you'd better listen well or you'll be fried." I said.

"You'll stop hunting, understood?" I said while taking a picture of them and their faces with my phone.

"That means: You won't hunt these pikachu." I said. "Officer Jenny will be interested in these pictures, I believe."

"You won't hunt and other pokémon either!" I said louder.

"AND YOU'RE GETTING THE FUCK OUT OF HERE BEFORE I ORDER THESE PIKACHU TO KILL YOU!" I said. The men looked at me.

"Don't think we're afraid of you!" he said. But he quickly flinched when Lukas came from the ring of pikachu and used Iron Tail to bash the man against the ground. He stood on his chest and growled angrily.

"I don't think you're afraid of me." I said while I smirked.

"Pika! PIKACHU!" he said before growling again and sparking his cheeks dangerously. He got really close to the mans neck and was still giving him a glare that would make you shit yourself if you would see it. It even made me a bit afraid of Lukas. The man got scared of the pokémon that close to probably killing him and tried to hit Lukas with his hands but Lukas easily jumped out of the way and walked back towards me and climbed my shoulder, still watching the men, who watched me astonished of the fact that I tamed such an aggressive pikachu.

"Give them a soft thunderbolt..." I said to Lukas before he send out a small thunderbolt. The men jumped up.

"Now fuck off before he gets pissed-" I said looking at Lukas "-or you'll regret that you didn't. He ain't the colony leader for nothing!" I lied. Lukas growled again and the men quickly walked away. The circle of pikachu allowed them to move out of it. One looked at his gun, but quickly walked further when I looked at him with a glare that said 'don't-even-think-about-it'. After they were gone I waited ten more seconds to make sure that they were really gone before I turned to the pikachu and smiled brightly.

"You guys were absolutely awesome!" I said before I tried to cuddle all of them.

"I was really scared they would blow me to pieces but you did a great job. I don't think we'll see them back anywhere soon!" I said before heading towards the guns.

"I'll take care of these..." I said while fetching their shotguns from the ground. Jenny would like to see these as evidence. I hope they learned their lesson. Maybe we had to give them one more thundershock to tell them we're serious..." I mentioned.

Meanwhile the other pikachu were talking. Lukas seemed a bit excited.

"Pika-pika-pikachu!" he exclaimed. "Pika-pikachu-pi!"

"Not so quick Lukas, I cannot understand you!" I said to the pikachu. "Let's head back to the colony first, then Espeon can translate it for me."

Lukas didn't seem too happy about that but he took it and jumped my shoulder and started to rub his cheek with mine heavily.

"You're in a good mood today, aren't you?" I said. Lukas just continued and purred. We went back to the colony and I dropped the guns back at my bag and backpack and I made sure that a curious pikachu couldn't activate them.

Then life went on as it usually did. Except that Lukas was in a very good mood and that other pikachu seemed to be a lot more interested in him and that included females. The whole day more and more females came to... Seduce him? I don't really know what happened but Lukas seemed to be popular in just one day. The answer came at the end of the day when Espeon was able to translate it for me.

"So, what did you want to tell me Lukas?" I asked as soon I understood that I could understand him while I plucked a pichu from a nearby tree. Lukas looked at me. He was still excited and he couldn't help, but he shouted the answer.

"THEY WANT TO MAKE ME THE COLONY LEADER!" he shouted. I looked at him for a moment before I understood what he exactly said.

"They want to do WHAT?" I said, completely overwhelmed by hearing this.

"They want to make me leader of our colony!" he said again.

"That's... Great!" I said while Lukas hugged my belly while I looked at Espeon.

"How the hell can he be a leader?!" I spoke to Espeon through my mind. "Not that I think he will be a bad leader, but I think he's a bit young, isn't he?"

"I don't know, I never interfere with that kind of stuff!" she spoke back to me, smiling.

"Well, uhm... Congratulations!" I said smiling while I returned the hug to Lukas. He purred and looked incredible happy.

"You know what that means eh?" I said. "Being leader is a very responsible task."

"I know!" Lukas said before he left my lap and turned around.

"They said they'll make me leader tonight..." he said.

"Tonight? Is there some kind of ritual before you become leader?" I asked.

"Ritual? What's a ritual?" he said to me with a questionable face.

"A ritual is something you do before you make someone do something... Like let him say he will do anything for the colony before he becomes the actual leader." I said.

"Really? You humans are sure hard to understand..." he said. "I don't know what will happen. I never seen a leader change since I was born..."

"Really? Is Tommy your leader that long?" I asked.

"Yes... Most of the times, the children from the leader become the new leader except when the leader is beaten by another pikachu when he challenges him for the colony leadership..." he said.

"Or she." I added.

"She? I don't know if females can become leader..." he said.

"If you would say that in a place with humans all females would try to rape you." I said laying down on my back and looking at the sky while I gently scratched two pichu behind their ears while I placed them just under my chin. Lukas gently stepped on my belly and walked over to my face so he could watch me.

"Rape you?" he said while he tilted his head.

"Not rape, I mean that they would be mad at you because they cannot be chosen." I said.

"But..." he said.

"Forget it." I laughed at the pikachu, laughing because he was unable to understand the metaphor. Then there was another male coming right my way.

"Maurice?" he asked. Both Lukas and Espeon looked at him. It was one of the stronger males of the colony.

"Yes?" I replied.

"Can... Can I talk to you for a second...?" he asked.

"Sure, I said while getting up. Lukas wanted to follow, but the pikachu looked at him and me.

"Alone?" he continued.

"Uhm... Sure, why not. Espeon will go with us, otherwise I can't understand you." I said.

"Uhm, that's alright I suppose..." he said. We moved away from the colony, Lukas looked a bit surprised but didn't really care. He took care of the pichu while I was gone. When we were far enough (pikachu ears are much better than human ears so we moved much further than I thought we would go) he stopped.

"Alright, what's the deal?" I asked.

"Well, it is..." he said. "I wanted to become colony leader too. After Lukas did that to that guy you said was dangerous some of the other pikachu thought it would be a good idea to make him leader because of his attitude towards 'bad' humans. But we think he's too young to be leader of the colony." he said, hesitating.

"So...?" I asked expectantly.

"Well, we wanted you as our leader first..." he said.

"ME?" I said. "I'm here just a month and you already want me as leader?!"

"It doesn't matter that you're here just a month..." he said. "By the way, what is a month...?"

"Thirty suns." Espeon chuckled.

"Oh..." he said. "Lukas told me something about that..."

"Never mind that." I said.

"It doesn't matter that you're here a short time. It's about your work for our colony and your place in it. You did so much since you got here and you're able of doing so much things we don't understand..." he said.

"Such as...?" I asked gently.

"You can communicate with humans..." he said. "Even if we try our best humans just won't understand us..."

"Don't worry, different humans speak different languages and sometimes we don't understand each other either." I said, smiling.

"Well, the pichu love you, you are a great warrior... that... 'strategy' or whatever you called it worked very good and you managed to chase those men with blast sticks away. They were here before, before you were with us, and we never knew what to do about them. They killed some of us so we always tried to scare them off with attacks but most of the times they were unaffected..." he said while sparking his cheeks and looking around rather uncomfortable.

"Because they wear rubber boots..." I said softly.

"Rubber what...?" he asked.

"Boots. Those things they wear around their feet." I said. "They don't conduct electricity."

"Conduct? What the hell is that?" he asked, giving me a surprising glare.

"Never mind. I'll tell you later." I said. "You were talking about me and Lukas, please continue."

"Uhm... Yeah, and I wanted to ask you... Making Lukas leader wasn't because of Lukas or something, but because we know Lukas and you are very close..." he said. "Could you try to help him when he becomes leader?"

"So... You're just using him?" I said. The pikachu looked at me before he looked sideways, very typical for pokémon to show they were guilty as charged. Then he looked at me again with asking eyes, almost begging.

"Well, I already thought that. I heard your little conversation back there." Espeon said.

"Conversation?" I asked.

"Yes, they were talking about Lukas." she said. I noticed the pikachu got a little nervous.

"Are you nervous?" I asked him with a vague smile, indicating that I knew that he was nervous I would probably find out about that conversation. The pikachu just looked at me.

"I hope it was nice?" I asked Espeon through my mind.

"Kind of. Let's say it was fair." she replied.

"What are you doing?" the pikachu asked. I looked at him. Me and Espeon were looking at eachother with our eyes to make the communication easier.

"We're having a little telepathic talk..." I said while smiling at the pikachu who didn't understand the telepathic part of my words.

"What do you think? Shall I do it?" I asked.

"Oh, I think you and Lukas would do fine. Lukas may be young but he's more mature than he looks." she replied.

"Alright, I'll help him. I was also having doubts of making him leader, to be honest..." I said after looking to Espeon one more time. "If this was what you guys were planning I'll agree with it. Just promise me that if I'm gone for whatever reason you won't be harsh on Lukas or that you won't tell him he isn't leader anymore because I'm gone."

The pikachu looked at me for a second and then nodded. Then he suddenly jumped forward and hugged my belly and purred.

"You would really make a great leader!" he said.

"Are all you guys like this, hugging each other all the time?" I said while I gently stroked the pikachu. "Lukas does it all the time."

"Do you humans don't hug then?" he asked.

"Uhm, no. Only friends and family." I replied.

"Well I'm your friend aren't I?" he asked, looking at me with a happy and smiling face. Damn. Beaten by pure pika-logic.

"Seriously, you guys are so dumb and so smart at the same time..." I said while I returned the hug by stroking the pikachu.

"Dumb?" he asked questionable.

"Never mind, I can't explain that to you. It's something humans only understand." I laughed while I got up and moved back to the colony. When we came back Lukas immediately came towards us.

"What did you talk about?" he asked happily.

"Oh, nothing." I said with a smile while the pikachu smiled back at me. Colony leader... I couldn't believe it really. But apparently they thought I would do good. And now I've heard that pikachu, I think me and Lukas will do great. We will, for real.

"Oh, you will be leader tonight, Lukas. We will make you one." the pikachu said before running off. I looked at Lukas. He looked a little nervous, but all right.

"Nervous?" I said with a smile.

"A bit..." he said.

"You'll do fine." I said. "Let's go back to the pichu, I think they missed us."

Lukas nodded and Espeon and I followed him to the playground.


	19. A lovely problem

I was at the lake together with the pichu. About one month later summer had come and the temperatures were around thirty degrees celcius, which meant it was hot. Unfortunately, the humidity was very high and that meant that everyone was having trouble staying cool, including me.

We were at the side of the lake where I kept an eye on some pichu playing at the waterside. It was one month ago that Lukas had been chosen as leader. They made him leader by doing an enormous thunder attack which was summoned by all the important pikachu, before they obeyed him as a leader. Also, some pichu from last year had evolved into pikachu which made my task a little easier because you were expected to look after yourself if you evolved, but in fact most evolved pikachu remained with me and the 'mature' pikachu didn't care. And I didn't care either. I trained them a bit to look after the pichu as well. However, you could spot a clear difference between pichu and pikachu minds. Pikachu were much more grown up, less playful but at the same time always in the mood to play.

But not today, because every pikachu was lying in the shade to prevent overheating. Some took a swim every now and then. I was lying under my parasol (gotta thank Oak for that) near the waterside to be able to quickly do something when anything happened. My head was in my hands while I watched at the pichu, which were half in the water and half on the side romping everywhere. They loved it. Between my elbows were two pokémon: Lukas and a newborn pichu, just four weeks old. It had just left the nest for the first time and it was still a bit scared to get outside so it was near me most of the time.

Both pokémon were asleep and softly snoring. I looked down at the pichu who was lying against my arm and purring softly. It was a surprise for me that this pichu had been born, yet I should have known that pichu are born all year long, yet not in the same numbers as in the spring. I felt movement at my arm and the pichu had opened his eyes. He purred softly when I moved my finger across his back. He tried to grab my finger when I came close to him. I let him grab it and he played with my thumb. I smiled at him and nuzzled him with my nose. He smiled and hugged my face. I grabbed him with my hands and cuddled him close to me. He closed his eyes and purred softly. I smiled.

"Hehe, I like this too. You're all nice and warm, it's better than this stinky weather." I smiled. He looked at me and smiled. I put him down. He then some steps forward before looking at the other bigger pichu. He smiled a bit and took off towards them. I watched as he joined their games in running around and shocking each other. I checked the sun. It was almost noon and almost time to eat. I had to gather the food for the pichu. The younger ones were still fed by their moms which suckled their kit. We were about to return to the nest when a pikachu came running towards us. He came running straight towards us and I could immediately tell something was wrong. He stopped before us. I woke Lukas up by gently jabbing him and I scooped some water from the lake and threw it over the pikachu since it looked quite overheated.

"Pika-pikachu-pi!" it said quickly to Lukas. Lukas eyes widened a bit when and he and the pikachu talked a bit. He then looked at me.

"Pikachu pika-pi." he said.

"Raichu? There are raichu around here?" I said. My pikachu-language skills had improved very much the last month. Espeon and Lukas had helped me with understanding it and with making it clear for me to spot the different heights in the sounds and the different meanings of pi, ka and chu. The result was that I could identify the different meanings much easier. Although it wasn't perfect, I could understand simple sentences and simple words, if spoken slowly and clearly. If I wanted to be able to fully speak pikachu, I had to practise a lot longer. Lukas nodded at my response and I quickly gathered the pichu and gave them to the other babysitters. I would follow Lukas to check if there really were raichu around our colony. If so, they had to be scared away or at least they had to know they weren't welcome. The pichu automatically followed me and everyone went back to the colony.

Every year in the summer, a group of raichu came close of this colony. The pikachu didn't know why or when exactly, but they came and they always seem to attempt to mate with the pikachu from our colony. According to other pikachu groups around, the raichu also threatened their colonies every year around the time of summer. While raichu also appeared in the pikachu colonies, mostly as their leaders, they also were known to travel around in groups. Probably they were one of those groups which traveled around in some sort of set pattern. We quickly walked back towards the colony and immediately looked out for raichu, maybe we could see them and tell them they were not welcome around here.

"Pika pikachu?" Lukas asked to the pikachu that had called us. Both talked a bit. We didn't encounter the raichu on our way back to the colony and I quickly told them to get inside until we at least knew where those raichu were. We wanted to be sure none of them could get their paws on one of the pichu. Fortunately it was cool underground, cooler than above the ground.

After thirty minutes of looking around the colony we allowed the pichu back outside since there was no raichu to be seen.

"I wonder if they're still around here." I said to Lukas. Lukas nodded before he looked around and sighed.

"Let's head back. If they're here we'll see them soon enough." I said while I smiled at him. The leadership had made Lukas very tired since he had to manage a lot of things. Pikachu disturbed him all day long with questions or other stuff. Since I couldn't understand the pikachu perfectly, I couldn't answer those questions. Lukas also had to manage the fighters and he also had to keep the area around the colony free of pokémon that we couldn't use. Noctowl and others that ate pichu and pikachu, dangerous pokémon that could be a threat to the colony, all that kind of stuff. He had to patrol the whole area (or let others do it for him) and also had to make sure there was enough food for the entire colony. He didn't have to search food for the entire colony though, they had to manage to get it themselves.

Except the message that the raichu were spotted the day went on like usual. When the evening fell we heard rumbling in the distance. There were thunderstorms coming... I looked to the sky in the long and hot evening and saw pitch black clouds coming our way. Lukas also looked at them and he looked at me.

"Pikachu..." he said slowly.

"I won't go away. I'll stay." I said with a small smile. "I'll get my stuff packed a bit so they won't get wet..." I said. When the clouds came hell broke loose. I had secured myself under a couple of trees and a small roof which kept me dry (again gotta thank Oak for that). Lukas had hidden himself inside the nest and I didn't blame him, an immense cloud-burst almost flooded the area while lightening flashed multiple times per second. But as soon the clouds came they were also gone. The whole forest dried quickly and the temperatures had dropped to normal so everyone could at least sleep without sweating like crazy. Most of the pikachu even got outside to cool down a bit. It was funny to see them rolling through the grass and getting their fur wet to shake everything off afterwards. When it was dark I went to sleep, at least, as far as it was possible. It was still quite hot and I couldn't really get to sleep. I took another gulp from my water bottle and removed some sweat from my head when I heard a rustle. I was used to it by now, different pokémon were around the colony and most of them weren't dangerous. Ratata's commonly walked by to quickly flee when they noticed me. But this time... It was different. I heard something bigger heading this way. I listened to the sounds, trying to identify the unknown sound. This couldn't be a ratata. It had to be something different. A raticate? Maybe, maybe not. But it wasn't something small, that was for sure.

I looked to my right, where the sound seems to come from. I slept just outside the colony. If I would stand up and look over the bush, I had an overview of the entire colony just like that. I listened and looked to the blackness. Suddenly, I heard something.

"Rai, rai rai." it whispered. I listened again. Could it be...

"Raichu." I heard another, higher voice. Since I now understood how to listen to pokémon (now I had to understand it) I could hear it was a female. Could this be...

"Raichu rai." I heard another voice, this time lower and heavier. Why were they wandering around this place at night? Not to look for food, I suppose. I heard another rustle and one raichu came through the bushes. I could see his shadow. It was clearly a raichu, and he hadn't spot me yet. It didn't take long though, as soon he looked in front of him instead of his mates, he froze in his tracks, looked at me for a second, and then quickly retreated towards the forest. I could hear them walking away quickly, scared of what I could possibly do.

The next morning I told Lukas I had seen the raichu and that they fled away. Lukas looked at me and immediately ran towards my bag and tried to get their scent. He said something before he and some other pikachu quickly followed the trail towards the small river where I had first seen Lukas. There the trail was gone. They looked around, discussed something and then headed back towards the colony. But on our way back we heard something. It was a scream, high pitched and pikachu...ish. I looked at the pikachu and they looked back at me. As fast as we could we made our way back to the colony, but nothing seemed wrong there. Espeon was there after a week of absence and she looked at me.

"Did you hear that scream?" she asked.

"Yes I did, we thought someone here was in trouble." I said.

"No, we heard it coming from the forest. We thought it was you!" she said.

"From which direction did it come?" I asked.

"There." she said, pointing towards the forest with her tail.

"Thanks." I said before the whole group turned and ran into the direction of the forest Espeon had pointed, she with us.

"I wonder what is happening down there..." I said. The mystery was quickly solved when there was a pikachu on the ground. It was a female, and around her were three raichu.

"This is exactly what happens every year." Lukas said with an angry tone. "They think they can just do this to anyone."

"Exactly." Volt said. His paw had healed and he was back on guarding duty. "I'm still happy we banned them from our colony."

"Hey you, leave that pikachu alone!" Lukas said, charging towards the raichu with Iron Tail. He hit the raichu spot on, which didn't even move after Lukas' attack, but was clearly annoyed with our presence.

"Hey, can't we have a nice time here, like we do every year?" he said while looking at Lukas.

"What happened to that old guy? Is he sick or something?" the second male laughed. Lukas' cheeks sparked dangerously.

"Oh, wo, wo, the little guy is angry... Did I say something wrong?" he said.

"Leave that pikachu alone and move somewhere else or I'll have to hurt you!" he said while sparking his cheeks again.

"Really?" the raichu said. "Well go ahead, attack me."

Lukas sparked his cheeks and released a thunderbolt. The raichu didn't even flinch, he just scratched his cheek and didn't bother.

"I didn't even feel that." he said. The third raichu, which must be the female, was now looking at me.

"Who is that?" she said, looking and pointing at me.

"That's that guy that we saw tonight..." the other said.

"Indeed, it is. What is he doing with you?" he asked.

"That's none of your business." Volt said, before releasing a strong thundershock on them. This time the raichu did flinch, and he went aggressive.

"So, you want to play?" he said. "Take this!"

Before I knew it, he also did a thundershock, back to Volt and the others. Lukas didn't even try to evade but he certainly had a hard time absorbing the power from the clearly stronger raichu. The attack of the raichu triggered the pikachu to attack him and a couple of them ran towards him while the others attacked with thunderbolt. After a while they managed to kick two pikachu out. Only Volt and Lukas were still fighting, but because Lukas was the leader (I don't know how they knew it, but they did) they waited with attacking him until the end. Espeon was also taken out by a powerful double thundershock which immediately ended her battle role.

After Volt was also taken out, two raichu were worn off by the battle that lasted for about three minutes. Lukas had plenty of energy left and he managed to overpower the two raichu because they were completely worn out. The last raichu that had to be taken to reach the pikachu was the female raichu. I took a step forward and together with Lukas I attacked her. She was very agile and managed to confuse me with agility. However, she didn't confuse Lukas and he managed to hit her with a Iron Tail. When the female saw she was losing she tried another strategy. I was running around like crazy evading all attacks. Since it was now so many months since I joined the pikachu I had developed some pikachu skills which included some battle strategy. I could sense what attack to use and since I couldn't do electric attacks I just kept being annoying for the enemies. I couldn't attack them anyway, only pinch them or pull their tails. This combined with Lukas was an excellent combination so that's how we fought.

The female raichu was losing so she tried a new attack. Lukas jumped out of the way for something, but I didn't know what. I looked at the raichu and... And... It was like... I stopped in my tracks.

"Isn't she the most beautiful thing you've ever seen?" I said to Lukas, my eyes on the raichu. Lukas also stopped and he looked at me and pulled a face.

"Pika-pi? Pikachu!" he exclaimed.

"Don't talk to her like that!" I said while I gave Lukas an angry expression. Lukas looked at me and then at the raichu. The raichu seemed to be just as surprised as he was, although I didn't know why. I walked over to the raichu. However, before I reached her Lukas launched a Iron Tail. I quickly jumped in front of her and grabbed Lukas and diverted him into another direction before getting mad at him.

"LUKAS! DON'T YOU DARE TO ATTACK HER!" I screamed to Lukas. He had just drilled his tail into a nearby tree and was trying to get it out, hanging upside down with his tail in the tree trunk. I stepped towards him.

"Bad, BAD PIKACHU!" I said while I gave him a angry face. He just looked at me with a surprised expression. I turned around and walked over towards the female raichu. I sat down next to her.

"I like you..." I said. She looked at me with surprised face but quickly understood it must be the attract attack that did this.

"Rai... Rai rai!" she said while pointing towards Lukas.

"I'll assure you he won't attack you anymore." I said, still looking towards her. She was really the most beautiful thing on this planet. I already imagined myself in a house with her at sea... It would be perfect... Her, the sea, maybe children... BAM.

I received an enormous slam from something and I fell sidewards. I looked at a female pikachu that looked at me with a angry and demanding expression and she called for me. I looked around confused before I saw the raichu and I quickly got back and I stood up. I saw Lukas stuck upside down with his tail.

"What the heck was I doing?!" I said to Lukas while I got him from the tree. He said something before we were hit by a thunder attack which made me fall to the ground. It was way too strong to be blocked by my shoes. I groaned and I saw Lukas and the female pikachu finish the raichu. After they were done I got up, still groaning, and got back to the colony with the two pikachu and the rest of the fainted pikachu. The female looked quite impressed by Lukas, or so it looked. They talked a bit while we were walking back and any ask for help by me (carry three pikachu and an espeon at the same time and you'll understand) were completely ignored. When we returned in the colony Lukas said goodbye to the female which kissed him on the cheek. Lukas rubbed his paw behind his head and blushed before the female ran off leaving him kind of paralyzed.

"Hello...!" I said to him, but no response.

"Hey, LUKAS!" I said. Still no response. Lukas was still watching the female running away. I kicked him with my shoe, gently of course, but enough to push him over.

"PIKA PIKA PIKACHU PI! (what the heck was that for?!)" he shouted angrily.

"A little help would be appreciated." I said while putting one pikachu in front of him to carry. Lukas sighed and then helped me. I smiled at him.

"So, you have a mate now?" I said on a sly tone.

"Pikachu-pi." he said firmly, which sounded as "No I have not.".

"You're popular around, aren't you?" I asked, smiling widely.

"Pikachu-pika." he said, a lot less firm but still quite as-a-matter-of-fact.

"Pika! Pikachu-pi." he then said, giving me a warning glare.

"Alright, alright, I'll stop..." I said. "I'm just curious, sorry." I said.

"Pika, pikachu-pi." he said while we arrived at my bag. I placed the pikachu and Espeon near it and checked them over quickly. They were fine, they would probably get back to senses within minutes. While I was checking them, Lukas was mimicking me proposing to someone.

"Don't you dare..." I said, but Lukas just continued.

"You jerk!" I said smiling widely while I tried to catch Lukas and to tickle him. He laughed, did another proposal and then quickly ran a few meters away from me to prevent him getting caught by me. He laughed at me and I rolled my eyes.

"Let's not talk about that." I said. Lukas smiled and nodded.

"So the raichu, do you think they'll return again this year?" I said. Lukas shook his head. Probably not.

"Alright then..." I said while Espeon got up and shook herself.

"That was one giant attack..." she said while she shook her head once more. "Did you guys win?" she asked.

"Yep, we won, and Lukas has a girlfriend." I said, pointing at him.

"Really?" she said. Lukas shook his head and blushed.

"I'll take that as a yes." she said, chuckling. Lukas started proposing to me and looked at me with a challenging glance.

"Oh, that's really interesting." Espeon said. "You were in love with a raichu?"

"Lukas, quit it!" I shouted before I ran after him towards the pichu, because it was time for lunch.


	20. Talking to Flowers

_I'll keep it short: Merry Christmas! :)_

* * *

><p>After a long and hot summer, autumn came. The autumn was rather boring compared to the summer. The activity of the pikachu colony decreased drastically. I didn't know, but while the summer was going, the pikachu had started gathering food for the winter. According to Lukas there was already quite a lot of food down in the nest. It made me wonder where I had to get my food while it was winter, but winter proved I didn't have to worry. It was the wettest winter ever, even after a wet autumn. The temperature didn't go below zero at all times and there was no snow either. According to Oak the weather forecast wasn't that good either: the temperatures would stay around five degrees celsius (I wouldn't be freezing to death, hooray!) with rain every now and then. I was happy with the temperatures, but the rain... At least it's better than a snowstorm.<p>

Christmas and New Year passed without too much problems. With Christmas I was at home for a couple of days and I don't know how, but all my manners seemed gone. I just couldn't wait for my turn or eat with cutlery properly. Like all my manners were covered in some kind of feral counterpart of myself.

The bad weather also had its benefits. I had created some sort of roof above my bag which kept all my stuff and not unimportant, myself, dry. Lukas and Espeon usually were right next to me when it rained again. I used the time I had to practise pikachu language, helped by Lukas who could learn me the exact pitch for certain expressions. Espeon then could translate that in some 'kind of help' in some psychic manner only she could understand. That helped me alot. On days it rained all day long we had lots of fun trying to translate the most difficult words I could make up. The time flew by and sometimes some pichu (or just evolved pikachu) would come out to join me in my bag while it was raining. Scratching them behind their ears and cuddling them close I made my way through the day. I had nothing better to do anyway, except to find food when it became dry. Learning stuff to pichu while it was raining wasn't the best idea since... Well they just got sick if they were in the rain for too long.

After the New Year had started, things got really busy in the colony. Mating season. The whole atmosphere turned more aggressive and I noticed that some pikachu didn't seem to bother the whole mating season, but others got more aggressive than they normally were. I found out it depended on age of the pikachu. The ones that were younger than four years of age mostly didn't care, but the ones around the age of four... They were just horny. I cannot describe it in another way. Unfortunately for me, Lukas also got the best of his hormones and he was more aggressive than usual, getting mad about the smallest thing that went wrong.

It was a relief to visit Cammy again. The last time I had visited her was about two weeks ago and I wondered how she was doing, especially since I got a text message from Oak saying that he had a surprise for me when I came, which probably was something about Cammy. First I thought Cammy would have evolved, but I soon found out that couldn't be true. Pichu couldn't evolve that quickly, could they? Wondering what exactly might have happened, I stepped into the laboratory before I would head to Jack and Rosie's nest.

"Ah, Maurice! I already wondered when you would show up." Oak said as I entered. "How are you?"

"Oh, I'm fine. I'm tired of the rain and all those horny pikachu..." I said. "The females keep trying to get me to mate with them, how odd it may sound. Luckily none of them knows attract, at least not that I know." I said. Oak laughed at that last comment and gave me some tea.

"I was just curious what happened to Cammy and why you texted me." I said.

"What? Oh, it's not really about Cammy." he chuckled. "As a matter of fact, Cammy is with your parents right now together with Jack and Rosie."

"My parents?" I said while I looked at Oak. "What's she doing there?"

"Well, Rosie managed to get pregnant and she's currently preparing to give birth in a week or six." he said.

"WHAT?" I said. "That's not fair. If I'm with her she doesn't get pregnant and now I'm with a pikachu colony and she gets... Never mind." I smiled.

"She already thought you would say something like that." he chuckled. "She also wished you could help her raising them, now you got the skills and the knowledge. But I told her you would think about that for now..."

"So Cammy isn't here, that's great." I said smiling. "When will Rosie give birth?"

"In six weeks or something like that." Oak said. "Mating season's early for her this year I guess."

"For all pikachu. It's not that cold so I think they're a bit confused with the seasons." I said.

"But you said that females wanted YOU to mate them? Are they getting nuts?" he asked with his face a mixture of surprise, worry and amusement.

"Yes, they do. Apparently they think someone big will get good offspring." I said while I rolled my eyes. "Even if I tell them I don't know any attack they don't care and even the fact that I'm not the same egg-group won't convince them."

"Hah ha hah ha haha!" Oak laughed. "I don't think they really care about that." he said while he smirked. After that we had a little chat about myself and how I felt. It was really strange to admit that I really felt... More feral. Slowly yet surely, I felt that I got into my role as pikachu. My human side was still there, but it was... Like... Fading. Some sort of pikachu-self slowly took part of me. Maybe because of the fact that it was almost 9 months ago I joined them, or the fact that I just loved the pichu so much... I didn't really know. Oak mentioned that I really looked more feral now and that I really should watch that I didn't overdo this out-of-hand experiment, as he called it.

"Out-of-hand? Why?" I asked, smiling.

"Well I thought that you would be in that colony for just a couple of months, not for three-quarter of a year." he admitted. "Maybe we should quit this soon before you really turn onto a pikachu." he smiled.

"Espeon said I should be careful with what I wish, because it might come true." I laughed.

"Espeon?" he asked.

"That espeon that helps me with understanding them." I said.

"Oh yeah that one." he said. "I recall now, I never saw him."

"Her." I said.

"He, she, it's a espeon." he said.

"I wanted to tell you something, but I forgot what I wanted to tell you..." I said while I thought about what I wanted to tell him. It was like all the knowledge I had gained in my first twelve years was slowly fading away. I didn't need it in the pikachu colony, so why remember it? That's probably what my brain was thinking. However, the 'lost' knowledge was replaced with fresh new stuff from surviving in the wild, predators, manners to track pichu down and to keep them together, and, and... So much more. I also noticed I was never bored anymore. In the start I sometimes got bored when I got nothing to do, but now I always had something I could do. It was strange to see that I could just keep going and do stuff. I also seemed to take naps more often overday, just when I felt like it. Suddenly I remembered what I wanted to tell him. My pika-language skills had developed like crazy the last month. Suddenly it was like I got the hang of it and I had managed to understand Lukas and other pikachu as long they talked slowly. But since the start of january I became able to understand them when they talked faster. This was a huge step forward in my integration into the colony. Espeon no longer needed to translate for me. Sometimes I still had trouble, but it was really... Strange that I was able to understand pikachu. It took my nine months, so it was about time I understood at least something. It appeared to go faster if I imagined myself I was a pikachu... Then everything went so much smoother. It was like 'I'm a pikachu... I'm a pikachu...' and then I was able to.

"I know what I wanted to tell you!" I said suddenly while we were in the middle of a conversation. Oak looked at me for a couple of seconds.

"Uhm... go ahead!" he said.

"I can talk Pika-language now!" I said. He looked at me.

"Pika-language? You mean you can communicate with them?"

"Yes, I can!" I said. "I don't know how I forgot that... Never mind."

"How well is it?" he asked. He put his cup down and looked at me with big eyes.

"Fully understand and speak. Although I still have some trouble speaking it every now and then." I said.

"Fully understand and... But... But when did you learn it?!" he exclaimed. "You never told me!"

"Of course I didn't. It was a surprise - plus, I didn't want you to push me learning it quicker... That wouldn't have worked."

"I understand... But I don't believe you. You can't just walk in and tell me that you can understand and speak to them in their language, I just don't believe it..."

"Well, try me." I said with a competitive look. "You got a 'chu for me?"

"Uhm... Well, I think I have..." he said while he turned his back to me and opened a door that led to the pokéball storage room. "Let's see..."

"This one should contain a pikachu!" he said while he throwed the pokéball at me. I pressed the button and released the creature inside... It was indeed a pikachu. I noticed it was a female, even though I could not see its tail.

"Hello there!" I said at the pikachu. It looked around and then looked at Oak. Then it jumped on his shoulder and started begging for cuddles and probably food. Oak gently scratched the pikachu under her chin and then whispered something in her ear. She watched me for a second before Oak was done.

"Alright! Can you tell me what the name of this pikachu is? Oh, and she doesn't understand english at the moment... Very odd." he smiled to me. Good luck! He placed the pikachu on the table and took a step back to watch our 'conversation'. It was clear he was sure I wouldn't be able to speak with her.

"Can't think of something harder?" I thought. I looked at the pikachu and imagined I was one.

"So, can you tell me your name?" I asked the pikachu gently. "And by the way, what did he tell you? Maybe I'll convince him if I tell him that." I smirked.

Her eyes grew a bit larger. She had never talked to a human in her own language! Oak saw the reaction of the pikachu as soon I finished speaking and looked at us with big eyes.

"How... How... How can you talk our language?!" the pikachu said.

"I'm currently living with a group of wild pikachu to learn more about them. They taught me." I explained. "It took me quite a long time to master it, though."

She was still surprised.

"Well I can see that... You sound weird... But I can understand you!" she said while wagging her tail happily.

"That... Has been different." I said slowly while coughing. "It took me about 6 months to master the pitch changes... Those are hard."

"I never had troubles..." she smiled. "But maybe that is because its natural for me..." she smirked.

"I think thats normal indeed." I smiled. "Anyway, can you tell me your name? I want to convince him." I said while pointing at Oak.

"Sure! My name is Scarlet. But he calls me Flower. He gave that name to me." she said nodding to Oak.

"Her name is Flower!" I said to Oak.

"Ehm... What?" he said.

"Her (I pointed at Flower) name (I did like I showed him my name) is Flower (I pointed at a flower)."

"I don't understand pikachu language. Can you talk english please?!" he said with a confused look. I laughed. I closed my eyes and imagined myself human. I was a human. Human... human...

"You call her Flower, but her name is Scarlet." I said.

"That... Is the right answer... She's called Scarlet?" he said. His face expression was priceless. "You're making that up..."

He moved closer to 'Flower' and whispered something in her ear. "Tell me what I told her!" he asked me. Easy... I changed back to pikachu.

"What did he tell you?" I asked Flower.

"Ehm..." she said slowly. "I..." she paused. I looked at her.

"Well...?"

"Well... Ehm..." she continued clearly not wanting to tell me. Oak looked nervously at me. I suddenly understood what he did.

"I won't hurt you if you tell me, even when its bad. I like pikachu." I smiled while I scratched behind her ears. "Now, tell me!"

"Well, ok then... He said you stink, suck balls hard, and that you're the worst assistant he ever had."

"WHAT?!" Me and Flower looked at Oak at exactly the same time. Flower a bit worried but also amused and me with angry expression. Oak quickly ran to the other side of the table, looking at me with a smile that said that he didn't mean anything he said, but that he said it to really test me.

"That jerk... Thanks for telling me. I'll convince him now for sure. If you need anything, just ask me." I smiled at her.

"Cool! Can I have food? I'm hungry." she said. Sigh. Some things never change.

"Ehm... Which pokéchew you like the most?" I asked her. "I love the yellow one! With those thunder marks on it." she said with a happy voice. "You know, you're the first human ever that asks me what I like." she chuckled.

"Don't get used to it..." I smiled... "I'll be leaving for the forest again this afternoon, but I'll tell him." I said as I stroked her. I changed my mind back to human.

"SOOOOOOO, I AM YOUR WORST ASSISTANT EVER, I SUCK BALLS HARD AND ON TOP OF ALL THAT: I STINK!?" I said with a voice that dripped from the sarcasm. Flower burst in laughing when I said that.

"Yeah well I wanted to be... Well, sure... Ehm... Sorry... I didn't mean it... I want to... Ehm... I thought..." Oak stammered.

"You thought I couldn't do it. Well, forget it." I laughed.

Flower had giggles after Oaks response. She almost choked from it and I had to tap her back, otherwise this could have ended badly. "But I want to do one more test with you." he said.

"Alright, bring it on."

"We'll have to wait until Flower is done... Otherwise I cannot test it..." he said while he grinned and looked at her. He gently stroked her belly while she was lying on her back, still laughing. Not as bad as before, but still.

"What did you do to her?! She never laughed like this."

"I used attract." I joked... "It was super effective." He grinned...

"You cannot use attract for this... But nice try. Allright Flower, please stand behind me. I will show you a certain amount of fingers. You tell Maurice how many I'm showing you, ok?"

"Can she count?" I asked. Flower gave me an angry look.

"Yes, she can." Oak responded. "Why?"

"Lukas can't count. And most pikachu can't. The pichu can, I taught them." I said.

"Hmmm, Flower can count since I know her." he said. "Never mind. Ready Flower?"

"Pika!"

"She's ready!" I grinned.

"I understood that myself, thank you. Alright, how many?"

I closed my eyes and changed to pikachu.

"Three!" I heard Flower saying. I changed back to human.

"Three!"

"Correct."

He raised seven fingers. I changed to pika and listened to Flower. "Seven!" But Oak quickly lowered one of his fingers. Just as I wanted to give my answer when Flower said:

"Wait! He lowered one! Six!"

"You had seven, now you got six."

"Holy... Correct."

He raised 1 finger.

"One." He raised 5 fingers.

"Five." He didn't raise any.

"Zero." He flipped Flower off.

"He flips me off!" she shouted.

"Don't flip her off!" I shouted at him. "Bastard."

"How do you know what gesture means?" I asked Flower when she came from behind Oak's back.

"Oh come on. Do you think I'm stupid?" she said while she giggled at me.

"No, but compared to the pikachu in the forest you are a genious." I said in pika-language. Oak just looked at both of us having a little chat like it was nothing.

"This is really... I've never seen something like this..." he said.

"What?" I asked him.

"Pika-language." he simply said. Damnit...

"What?" I asked again in human language.

"That you just talk with a pikachu like that. You know that's really extraordinary, don't you?" he said.

"Uhm... No." I said. I didn't really care either at this moment. Flower came closer and started to inspect me when suddenly officer Jenny came in.

"Hello professor Oak!" she said. Oak looked at her.

"Hello officer Jenny, how can I help you today!" he said. Then both of them started a conversation. I did the same to Scarlet alias Flower, which appeared to be a trainer pokémon. She was left behind as part of the collection of one of the trainers.

"So you're practically in that pokéball at all time?" I asked her. Her ears hang a bit while she nodded.

"Yes, I've been in the pokéball for a long time now. I'm happy I can get out sometime." she said.

"Aww, don't be sad..." I said. I nuzzled her nose with mine and smiled. She smiled back and purred softly.

"You really smell like pikachu!" she said, smiling.

"It won't surprise me if I do. I'm with pichu and pikachu all day!" I said. "I watch over the pichu, so I think I smell more like them than like pikachu..."

"They smell kinda the same." she said. Meanwhile I got some pokéchew from the storage. "Not completely, but just a bit."

"Well I can speak pikachu, but I cannot smell like one, unfortunately..." I said.

"But how do you keep them apart? Most trainers can't even keep two pikachu apart, even if they know them well." she asked while I could see she was interested in the pokéchew.

"I use what we humans do best: recognise them from their faces!" I said. There are small differences between every face, like a pluck of hair, or a stripe. I can identify them that way... And by their behavior. Every pichu behaves different and after a couple of weeks you can keep them apart by their looks and their behavior.

"That's kinda smart..." she said, her mouth half open. She drooled a bit while I was holding a piece of pokéchew in front of her, but I wasn't giving her yet. I moved the chew to the right and left and laughed at her eyes which were following the food accurately. I tapped my legs and she jumped from the table to my legs and I held the pokéchew in front of her mouth and fed it to her. She giggled and purred.

"You're funny." she giggled as I put another piece of pokéchew in her mouth by flying it in there like a airplane.

"I just love guys like you..." I said as I gently stroked her between her ears. She purred again and licked my fingers to get the last bit of pokéchew of it. I smiled and got some more food for her and held it in front of her in my hand. She happily grabbed some with her paws so half of it dropped on the floor. It didn't seem to bother her as she continued eating like nothing happened. Her ears were lowered halfway and past the back of her head and her tail was wagging happily, indicating she felt perfectly fine and that she was ok with my presence. Somehow I could feel she felt good with me.

"How it comes you trust me already?" I asked. "You barely know me..."

"Oh, I was trainer pokémon, remember? And you and Oak are friends, so I guess I can trust you too. And you have food!" she said happily while holding some pokéchew in front of me with a happy smile before she nibbled at the top and purred again.

"You're a smart pikachu." I chuckled. This comment got me a affectional small electrical shock on my hand, when she rubbed her cheek against it. I gently tickled her cheek when she was done. She giggled.

"You and Flower seem to get along pretty well!" Oak said. Me and Flower looked up and saw him and officer Jenny watching us. I put the resting pokéchew in the bag and I stood up, holding Flower in my arms. She quickly jumped and stood on my shoulder.

"So you were right..." Jenny said.

"He just told me, so I'm still quite astonished myself." he said.

"What?" I said.

"I don't think they understand that." Flower said.

"Hmmm?" I asked.

"You're still talking pikachu." she said while she giggled again.

"So what? I can understand them!" I said.

"That's true!" she said.

"Can you understand them? Or can you only understand attacks?" I asked.

"I can understand them quite well..." she said. "But sometimes I wonder what humans mean..." So even trainer pokémon had trouble with understanding human language. But Lukas didn't seem to have trouble.

"Do you know if every pokémon understands human?" I asked.

"Some understand better than others." Flower said. "Some can understand humans like they're humans themselves... But some don't understand it at all. It really depends on... On..."

"It just depends on the pokémon." I finished her.

"Yes!" she said happily. Jenny looked at me.

"Can I speak to you... In human language?" she asked me with a vague smile. Not a question you asked someone very often.

"Of course." I said in normal language.

"I've got some disturbing news, I'm afraid." she said. "Those poachers you caught a couple of months ago are free again, they were released just a couple of hours ago. Their time was done."

"That isn't really good news..." I said. Somehow it didn't really bother me as much as it did first. I stroked Flower a bit. She smiled at me.

"We don't know what they're planning to do, but please consider that they might want to take revenge on you. I'm here to warn you that you should watch your back out there. They don't like it when they're messed with."

"Well I got a entire pikachu colony. And they never manage to come close to our colony without getting noticed." I said as I continued stroking Flower. Flower enjoyed the attention she received and continued her purring.

"I hope you know what you're doing, because I don't want to tell your parents that you got shot by some poachers." she said as she looked at me. I also looked at her and I could see that she was dead serious.

"I will watch your situation and when things get too dangerous, I will demand you to quit this." she said.

"I'm ok with that. As long you can ensure me that those guys won't shoot any pikachu from my colony, because I will get a gun and wait for them there." I said. When I realised what I had said it made my scared of myself. How could I have...? Jenny looked at me with a strange expression. I closed my eyes and tried to regain some control of my 'feral' being. When I tried this it was like something inside me changed... Like I got back some humanity.

"What are you doing...?" Oak asked me. I didn't respond. I sighed.

"Sorry..." I said. "It's... Like I'm really changing into a pikachu... If I pretend I'm one I can talk to them much better... If I pretend I'm human I'm much more... Humane... Or something. Really strange."

"Are you alright?" Oak said. "Really, I don't want you to go insane. You should quit this if you feel bad."

"I don't feel bad. I'm just changing a bit because I'm living in the forest and not like an average human." I smiled. "I feel fine." And that was true. I felt great.

"Alright then." he said. "But if you got problems, I want you to come to me immediately. I want your word on this."

"You got my word." I said.

"Pikachu-pi?" Flower asked while she rubbed my face. I smiled.

"Heheh, I like you to." I said. "Oak, she loved the thunder pokéchew. Leave her outside more often, she hates being in the pokéball for long periods. Better keep her outside or something." I said looking out of the window.

"I'll try, but I cannot keep track of every pokémon I receive..." he said.

"Then give them some kind of registration, like a collar or something." I smiled.

"I could do that, but you'll have to help me getting them on all pokémon around here." he said. "And that's a lot of pikachu, and I won't even count all the other species."

"No problem." I said.

"Well, I hope you guys know what you are doing. I wish both of you a good day!" Jenny said before she left. Flower just looked at her and then looked at Oak and at me, wondering what we were gonna do next.

"Alright them, I think I'll head back to my colony!" I said. Flower's ears dropped when I said that.

"Awww, sweetie, do you like me so much already?" I said. Flower just sighed and rubbed her cheek against me one more time before jumping on the table and looking at me with a sad face.

"Maybe you can stay outside your ball now." I said, getting my face on eye-level with her and gently petting her with both my hands. She giggled again and hugged my face once more while she purred. Then she released me. Oak looked at us.

"I don't understand how you can mean so much to her that quickly." he said.

"Probably just because I fed her some food and because I can handle them very well. Especially now I got even more skills with pichu and pikachu. And my smell is right, because I smell like pikachu and pichu and I'm your friend. So that's probably a great reason to like me.

"I guess so." Oak said. "Maybe you can visit her too." he chuckled.

"Hey, I cannot visit everyone... Cammy, Jack and Rosie probably need me for at least a week when she gives birth..." I said. Scarlet looked quite unhappy. "Sorry Scarlet, but I can't just... Accept every pikachu... That would be insane."

"Pika-pikachu..." she said. I stroked her head.

"No worries, I'm sure we'll see eachother again..." I smiled.

"Alright, I have to go. See you later!" I said before leaving the laboratory and heading to the woods. I hadn't even left the building when I heard a loud "Pika!" before Scarlet came running around the corner and came running towards me with Oak behind her.

"Wanna come with me?" I asked.

"Pika-pikachu!" she said.

"I'm sorry, but you'll have to stay here..." Oak smiled to her.

"Oh, she can walk with my until the edge of the forest...!" I said. Scarlet looked to Oak with a hopeful puppy-look. Oak looked at her for just a couple of seconds before he fell for it.

"Alright alright, but make sure you come back to me. Maurice, I keep you responsible for her." he said before turning back to the lab.

"Thanks." Scarlet said.

"So, do you want me to call you Flower or Scarlet?" I asked her, smiling.

"Oh, I don't care... Just do whatever you prefer." she said.

"Ok Scarlet, you coming with me?" I chuckled.

"You bet!" she smiled before running in front of me and happily jumping around, scaring the shit out of some butterflies by trying to catch them. She just enjoyed her first trip outside since a long time. It was fun watching her checking on stuff she hadn't seen for so long. I sat down on a stone past the road and decided to watch her for a while and let her do her stuff before sending her back to Oak. She really seemed to enjoy this. She walked under the butterflies and kept them in her eyesight. She was fully concentrated. Then she took a leap upwards. She easily jumped my height and probably way past that before landing on her feet again. I looked at her and was surprised. She had managed to catch one of the butterflies! She had it in her mouth and came running for me.

"You little killer...!" I smiled when she jumped my lap and showed me what she caught. She carefully placed it on my leg before running off and climbing some trees and chasing behind some other pokémon.

"Butterflies in january... Things are really messed up..." I thought. Scarlet didn't care though. The butterfly looked kind of scared but it wasn't really hurt. Scarlet was just showing off, not hurting it. I wondered why... The butterfly spread it wings and took off after a minute or so.

After another ten minutes I stood up and continued to walk towards the forest. Scarlet followed me quickly. She jumped my shoulder and gently rubbed her cheeks against mine and purred.

"I like you..." she said.

"That seems pretty clear to me!" I smiled to her while we got deeper into the forest.

"Do you want to mate with me?" she asked.

"Excuse me?!" I said. She giggled and licked my cheek.

"What? I just like you!" she chuckled.

"So that's why you like me, so I would mate with you." I laughed.

"Well, no... I like you anyway." she said blushing. "But you seem pretty strong, so I thought maybe..."

"Well, I know it's mating season, but I won't mate with you, sorry..." I said. "All the females seem to want me. I don't have any idea why, because even if I mated with them (which I won't I quickly added) I could not have a pichu."

"No wonder, you're the strongest pikachu around!" she said. "I don't know if you cannot have pichu with me, I think it would work out just fine..."

"You think so?" I said. "Because I don't. By the way, I'm not a pikachu." I smiled.

"Why not?" she smiled while rubbing my cheek again. I petted her between her ears.

"Alright, enough talking about mating, because it makes me feel rather uncomfortable." I smiled.

"Why? Everyone does it..." she chuckled.

"Because you have to go back to Oak now and I have to go to my colony." I smiled. "The pichu need me." She sighed deeply.

"I wished I could come with you... I don't want to stay in my pokéball... I want to be outside, be with someone I can play with..." she said at a rather unhappy voice.

"I'll text Oak to get you out more often. Maybe he already has a place for you, because his backyard is quite big. I told him to get you out more often, remember?" I said. Scarlet jumped from my shoulder as I turned around and sat down so I was at eye-level.

"I'm sure I'll see you again, no doubt about that." I said. "I still can't understand that you got so close to me within just a couple of hours..."

"Me neither..." she said as she hugged me. I placed my hand on her back. "Maybe it's just that I was so alone for quite a time... In my pokéball and so..."

"Maybe it is. You should search a mate or something." I said as I broke the hug. Scarlet sighed once more before she turned back.

"I hoped I could stay with you... Bye!" she said when she took off.

"See ya!" I replied before I also turned and entered the forest. Knowing that Scarlet was a trainer pokémon I hoped she would go back to Oak.

It was back to the usual business with the pichu. They were happy I was back, because the other baby-sitters were kind of grumpy. It was on the third day after I went to Oak one of the pichu was lost. It didn't take long before me and another young pikachu had found it, thanks to the excellent nose of the pikachu. On our way back the pichu playfully ran away with us behind it.

It ran across the woods with us on its tail. The pikachu almost got it, he was so close he could almost grab the little rodent at its scruff. Suddenly the pichu and the pikachu stopped and I stopped just behind them. The pichu had entered a clearing and the pikachu stood behind it and had grabbed him. They were looking at Lukas and his mate which were sitting with their cheeks connected and happily purring. The pichu squeaked something happy to Lukas and Lukas looked up. He looked at the pichu, the pikachu and at me rather disturbed.

"Uhm... Hi." I said. "We're not... Disturbing anything... Aren't we?" I asked.

"No you're not..." Lukas said with a voice with annoyed undertone.

"Alright guys, off you go. Back to the nest with you." I said as I pushed them away with my shoe. The pikachu looked at me for a moment and then understood the message. He went back to the nest with the pichu in his mouth with me quickly following him.

Back at the colony (which wasn't that far away) we placed the pichu back with the rest.

"What was that about?" the pikachu asked. It was a young pikachu which had evolved about two or three months ago. He was a great help now Lukas was colony leader.

"I also would be annoyed when I get disturbed while... Uhm... Never mind it." I said. "Just forget that."

Later that evening, when I was in my sleeping bag, Lukas joined me. He slept in the nest more than with me since he had a mate. He slipped in and rubbed his cheek against mine affectionately.

"Hello 'Luk..." I said. He nuzzled next to me and purred softly.

"Look..." he said. "I don't care that you know I have a mate... But please... Just... Leave me alone when... When..."

"When you're having a good time with her." I said. Lukas just licked my cheek and purred.

"I smell a female on you." he suddenly said.

"You mean Scarlet... She's a pikachu of Oak." I said.

"Oh... I would love to see her... She smells nice..." he answered.

"I hope mating season is finished soon." I said to him before we cuddled close together. "I guess I'm not suitable for your way of making love."

"Pika..." Lukas answered before we both fell asleep.

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><p><em>And that was chapter 20 already! I'm considering to re-rate this story as M, but I'm not sure. Any opinions about that? There will be some voilence coming up in the next chapters (something unexpected is going to happen, spoiler!) and I don't think you guys will see it coming when I do something I'd like to do for a long time...<em>

_I'll quit making fun of you because you'll just have to wait until it's written and finished! Have a Merry Christmas!_


	21. Shocking discovery

_Hi everyone! A new chapter! This one is a mere connection between what's gonna happen next. Scarlet will play a important role in later in the story, that's why I give her some screentime. It's also important that she gets a bond with Maurice because... That's a secret... :)_

_Have fun! Next chapter will have a major surprise in it, promise. :)_

_OH, one more thing. Italic speak means pika-speak! And I'm looking for two original names for the pichu of Jack and Rosie!_

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><p>I lay in my bed. Next to me were two small pichu, just one hour old. They were cuddled up against me. I was at home and it was 2AM. Jack and Rosie just went downstairs to get some water after Rosie had given birth and to clean up a bit. I looked at the small pichu and then at Cammy, who was in Bobby's old basket. She had been sleeping all the time. I smiled and looked down. The difference in size was huge. I wondered how she would respond to her new brother and sister when she would wake up. I changed position. Soft squeaks came from both pichu, which immediately responded to the absence of warmth. I gently got back close to them as Jack and Rosie both jumped my bed.<p>

"_Thank you..."_ Rosie said before grabbing her cubs and placing them next to herself. After she was done, she and Jack curled up around them and both sighed happily.

"_I'm happy you could come..."_ Rosie said before licking my neck.

"No problem..." I said as I gently stroked her. "Don't you think Jack could help you?"

"_Me? Help her with giving birth? No thanks... Remember when I almost fainted when I got that little wound...?"_ he said while sighing.

"That's true... You aren't really suitable for this kind of things." I said.

"_I can't help it... As soon I see blood I just feel terrible..."_ he said.

"No worries, some humans have the exact same problem." I said softly. Rosie just giggled and purred softly as she licked Jack's face.

"_No worries, I'm just happy that Maurice wanted to be here... He makes me feel safe... And I wanted my pichu to know him as soon as possible... Whenever they'll smell him they'll remember him."_ she said before she licked my face. Jack just smiled and also licked one of the pichu. He then stood up and curled up next to Cammy.

"Do you already have names for them?" I asked.

"_Names? Why?"_ Rosie asked.

"Well, for the humans... To keep them apart..." I said.

"_Why would you need names..."_ she said. _"We got smell."_

"Then tell me why you call him Jack and why you're called Rosie." I smiled.

"_Because someone named him Jack..." she said. "And because someone named me Rose... and everyone calls me Rosie ever since. So I'm used to it by now..."_

"That's true, your trainer named you Rose..." I said.

"_Anyway... I'm gonna sleep... I'm tired... Cammy will probably be happy she got a brother and sister..."_ Rosie said.

"Yeah, I wonder how long Cammy will be asleep. She'll probably freak out..." I said.

"_It still freaks ME out you can talk pikachu."_ Rosie said. _"But I like it..."_

"I'm completely used to it by now... It took me so long to master it..." I said when I heard a loud snore from Jack. He was deep asleep already. I nuzzled Rosie gently one more time. She purred and also felt asleep.

It was morning before I knew it. Cammy was standing next to my head and she was trying to wake me up.

"Good morning...!" I whispered while I stretched myself. I felt Rosie and the pichu next to me, still asleep. I gently scratched Cammy under her chin and she purred. She then wanted to snuggle under my blanket but I stopped her. Rosie wasn't awake yet and Jack (who had been sleeping next to Cammy) just jumped the bed to get Cammy back.

"_Cammy... Tonight your brother and sister are born..."_ he said softly. _"They're still asleep and we shouldn't disturb them. They're tired."_

"_But-chu pi! Pi-night! Pichu pi -be tired?"_ she asked. It took me quite an effort to understand only that, because pichu only uses two syllables instead of three. Understanding other pokémon with three syllables, like bulbasaur, was much easier for me (yet still very hard).

"_Yes, they slept all night..."_ Jack said. _"But you have to be a good pichu and listen to me. You can cuddle with Maurice instead. When they're awake you can see them." _he smiled to her.

"Wait, what?!" I laughed while Cammy didn't waste any time and quickly hugged my face squeaking softly. Jack meanwhile dove under my blanket to check on Rosie and his newborns. After a while he emerged, grabbed Cammy at her scruff, looked at me with a glare that meant 'food' and took her downstairs to probably eat something. I felt that Rosie was awake. I checked on her. She looked at me with a tired face. I smiled and I decided leave her alone for a couple of hours and I followed Jack downstairs.

"_I could get used to this..."_ I thought when I looked over to my bed. I went downstairs to find Jack and Cammy in the kitchen. It was only 6AM and I yawned long and loudly.

"The first thing I learn you when I come back here is to have a good sleep..." I said to Cammy before fetching pokéchew for Jack. Cammy looked at me with a questionable face that turned into delight when I showed her pichu-pokéchew. I filled both their feeders with food and they immediately started eating. I watched as Cammy ate her food. She had to be close to evolving. I wouldn't think it could take much longer before she turned into a pikachu.

Later that day I was watching the pichu in the bed. They were doing great and for such small pichu they were quite active. It was fun to watch them explore my bed and my blanket while Cammy was walking around them and trying to play with them. Jack and Rosie had a hard time stopping her from being too rough with them, but Cammy was just over the moon with her new playmates. I frequently just lured her towards myself just to calm the pichu down a bit. Her brother and sister found her kinda strange, but they would get used to her soon enough. They didn't have any problem with me, not as the pichu from the colony on the first meet at least. I suppose that's the advantage of pichu born in human company. Even my mother found the pichu cute (and that says something).

I went back to my own pikachu and pichu after one more night. Rosie had recovered in a amazing way, she wasn't even tired anymore. Probably because it was her third nest already. She know how things worked. She hugged me goodbye when I said I had to go back. Inside I didn't really want to leave the newborn pichu, but since Lukas and his mate were also expecting pichu... And since half the colony was expecting pichu...

I had promised them to take them back to their own nest whenever the pichu were ready for it. That would probably be in a week or five. Cammy also hugged me and Jack just rubbed his cheek against mine. I smiled at him and told him to take good care of Rosie, Cammy and the pichu. We didn't name them yet, but my mother would probably come up with some names within the next days.

"_Bye daddy!"_ Cammy said happily when I left the door. I smiled one more time at her before mom smiled at me.

"Bye sweetie!" she said and she closed the door.

Oak looked at me as I got into the jeep. After some business in Viridian he picked me up for the drive to Pallet. I entered his car and we drove off.

"So, how things went?" he said. "I would love to see her pichu, but I simply don't have the time for it..."

"Everything went just fine." I said. "Rosie was quite tired but she's OK now. The pichu look great, they were quite active already after a couple of hours. They're male and female."

"Perfect family." Oak chuckled.

"Indeed." I said while sighing. I looked out of the window.

"What's the matter?" he asked.

"Oh, nothing. I just miss... My house... My bed... Rosie, Jack... Now they have pichu I want to stay home. And of course I miss Cammy... After all I'm her trainer now... Well, trainer... Caretaker." I said.

"Really? And what about the colony then?" he asked.

"That's the point... I miss them too." I said. "I'm currently trying to choose a side but I cannot choose."

"You shouldn't pick sides..." Oak said. "You should just try to live your life in the colony and return home when you're done with the colony."

"Done with the colony? Like when I don't like them anymore?" I said.

"Well... Yes, but also when you feel that it's enough." he said.

"Yeah... Well I love them way too much. I've seen a complete generation of pichu grow... I've raised them almost myself. That's a very strange feeling, you know that?" I said. "I'm colony leader... I can talk to them... I can understand them... I even think like them when I'm focussed on the pikachu life..."

Oak remained silent after I said this.

"Enough depression." I said. My feral part could just smell the forest... My temporary home. "I want to get back and make sure the new pichu are good."

"Alright. Remember to tell me when anything is wrong." Oak said.

"I will." I said. "How's Scarlet doing? Maybe I can say hi to her... Did you leave her outside her pokéball in the past six weeks?" I asked. Oak remained silent.

"Scarlet...?" he asked.

"Flower... That pikachu you used to test me a while back." I said.

"Oh, that pikachu! I forgot all about her..." he said.

"You didn't." I said as-a-matter-of-fact. "Did she come back to you?"

"Yes, she did." Oak said.

"How can you forget about her?"

"I have more pokémon in my lab than just Scarlet." he said. "She has to be there all the time so her trainer can get her."

"Hmmm..." I said. "That sucks for her, because she's basically jailed in her ball then."

"Yes... Yes she is." Oak said.

"Hmmm... I'll ring her trainer then. Maybe she CAN come with me. Lukas would love to meet her. I think he got attracted to her smell." I said.

"Really? Could he smell her on you?" Oak asked.

"Of course he could. Almost immediately, after three days." I chuckled. "Oh, and maybe you don't want to hear this, but she asked me to mate with her." I said.

"She did?" Oak said, a smile on his face.

"Yep. I'm happy mating season is over, it makes females do strange things." I said.

"Indeed. Do you know why she asked you?" he asked.

"Uhm... Because I was a strong pikachu, the strongest around. I told her that even if I mated her it wouldn't work out but she implied it would work out just fine..." I said.

"The strongest around?" he laughed.

"She said so... I think exactly the same as you right now I think." I smiled.

"Well we're almost there." he said. "You can ring her trainer if you like... Maybe he'll give you permission..."

"Do you know her trainer?" I asked.

"Just as I know most trainers... Just a bit." he said. "I just can't remember all trainers that come at my laboratory..." he smirked as he pulled into his own parking space just in front of the door. It was nice weather and a little spring sun was shining. We entered the laboratory and turned into the research area with the equipment... And we looked around. The place was a mess. Papers were all over the ground, some equipment was on the ground... And we could hear some noise in the pokéball room.

"What on earth..." Oak said slowly. We both looked at the pokéball storage. I walked over to the door of the storage and grabbed the handle. With a quick motion I opened it and I was immediately pushed aside by a man dressed in black. He ran away and was headed for the door. Oak tried to stop him but he was too quick. I got on my feet and followed him outside, but he was gone already. I looked left and right and even on the roof (it happens often in movies, you could never know!) but he was nowhere to be found. I headed back inside and got into the laboratory. When I entered it the pokémon storage appeared to be full of... pikachu...

"What the heck!" I asked Oak. "Who was that and what was he doing here..?"

"I seriously have no clue." he said. I looked at the different pikachu. All of them didn't look very good. They were happy that the person in there was gone now, or so it appeared. I sat down next to them. A quick check revealed that all of them were alright... I looked inside the storage room. One pikachu was still in there. I looked at it and it quickly fled under some machinery. I could just see it's tail. A female. I looked at all other pikachu. They were all male. That could only mean one thing... It was Scarlet that just fled away! Why was she trying to hide herself as soon I saw her?

"What the... Scarlet...!" I said, surprised that she fled for me. I jumped up and walking into the storage room. Oak looked at me.

"What's the problem?" he asked.

"Scarlet... It's me..." I said as I walked into the storage room. A small bonk and whine from the distance and then everything was silent. She didn't move anymore and kept herself silent. I couldn't hear anything of her. I lay on my belly and I got myself through some wires under the pokémon storage machine and tried to get under it.

"Where is she...?" I thought.

"What are you doing? Is Scarlet here?" Oak asked. He had followed me inside and stood behind me. He could probably only see my feet sticking from under his machinery until they completely disappeared as I pulled myself further under it.

"Yes, she went inside here... How big is this?" I asked from under the machine as I Looked into a dark sort of corridor where I was crawling through.

"You're currently in the maintenance tunnel." Oak replied.

"Is it a dead end or has it splits? Scarlet, where are you...?" I asked.

"It's a dead end." he replied. "I'm not sure, I didn't enter this thing in years."

I got near a turn to the left. I crawled further in and saw Scarlet. She was standing in one of the corners of the dead end and she looked at me with scared eyes. It went really dark behind the corner and my eyes needed some time to adjust to the amount of light.

"Hey...!" I said with a soft and soothing voice, one you would use against a baby. "Why are you hiding here?" I asked her gently. I stuck my hand in front of me so Scarlet could smell me and hopefully remember me. I could see a vague black shade slowly coming towards me and sniffing me before she immediately hugged my face and whimpered a bit. It felt a bit wet, tears maybe...?

"Hey sweetie, what's the problem? Why are you fleeing for me?" I asked.

"Do you got her?" Oak asked.

"Yes, I do. She's a bit... Emotional. I don't have a clue what's the problem." I said as I got her a bit more comfortable against my shoulder.

"Shhhh..." I said slowly. "It's alright..."

Scarlet looked at me with a scared look. I could barely see her face but there was some light on her. She looked around me to see if there was anyone else.

"That guy is gone." I said to her while I gently stroked her between and on her ears before she came close again and pushed herself against me with her small hands against my neck and shoulder. I wrapped my arms around her and gently rubbed my cheeks against hers.

"Shall we go back?" I asked her. "That guy is gone." Scarlet just watched me.

"_I w-wanna stay here..."_ she said stuttering.

"But why then?" I asked her gently. "He's gone... Did he hurt you?"

"_He... He..."_ she said but she just failed to tell me what happened before she whimpered again and wanted me to grab her again. I just pulled a worried face and gently went back from under Oak's machine. There was actually enough room in here to turn so I turned and I told Scarlet to walk in front of me while I crawled back. I got out of the little tunnel and got all the dust from me. Then I could see Scarlet a bit better. Her right eye was blue, as if she was hit by someone. She had one of her paws in a awkward position and there was some blood on her belly, which I couldn't see in the dark.

"Whoa, Scarlet, what happened?" I asked her while I examined the rather small wound.

Oak walked back into the room.

"WHOA, what did you DO?" he said.

"Huh, why that?" I asked while getting up.

"Your face is covered in blood!" he said. I placed my finger on my cheek and took it off and I noticed indeed that my right cheek and shoulder were red and that some of my clothes were red. So it weren't tears I felt, it was her blood! Oak saw Scarlet.

"What happened to her...?" he asked.

"I don't know... Scarlet couldn't really tell me." I said while I looked at her. She was shivering and she looked around restlessly. Oak kneeled next to her and felt her side not covered in blood.

"She's in shock." he said fairly soon after. "She needs medical help, some rest and some little attention." Oak said. "No food or water for the oncoming two hours at least and make sure she doesn't faint. If she does, call me." he said.

"Alright." I said as I gently picked her up. She looked around confused and she looked at me. I took her to another part of Oak's lab. One of his assistants helped me out with some of the medical stuff. After Scarled was bandaged on her belly and she appeared alright I gently picked her up and wrapped her in a small blanket and sat down with her on a couch, gently keeping her warm and gently cuddling her every now and then. She appeared very confused and she was happy to be with me.

Oak sat next to me and checked her over after about one hour. Scarlet still appeared very confused but she had stopped shaking and she wasn't restless anymore. I gently was stroking across her head and I was gently cradling her against me.

After another fifteen minutes Scarled was almost back to normal. She was still a bit confused but she appeared and acted quite normal. I gave her another big cuddle which she happily accepted.

"Pikaaaaaa..." she said softly as I held her against my shoulder.

"So, what happened to you?" I asked her while I stroked her.

"You could have asked the other pikachu." Oak said.

"Crap... I didn't think about that..." I said with a plain look.

"_I don't know... That guy... He said to me that he would... He would kill me..."_ she said as she shivered. _"It was very scary... I feared for my life..."_

"_He told us to tell where Cammy was... I said him I didn't know who Cammy was but he didn't understand me and he froze the pikachu and told me that I had to cooperate and show me where she was otherwise he would k-kill... me..." she said as she shivered again. "He hit me in my belly with some sharp thing... I panicked and I was afraid he would really kill me... He had cornered me and he had shot the other pikachu with some kind of... Thing... They couldn't move and shocking him wouldn't help. He just wanted to beat me when someone came in and he waited for that person to open the door which appeared to be you... But I cannot really remember it..."_ she said. He asked for Cammy... Could it be...

"Did he say something specific about Cammy?" I asked, fearing the worst.

"_He said he was looking for a special pikachu..."_ she said as she looked at me. _"You know Cammy?"_ she said as she smiled and got up. She then pulled a painful face and allowed me to put her down again and cover her up under the blanket again.

"No more moving for you for a while." I said to her in pikaspeak. "You stay right here in my lap." I smiled. Oak came in.

"Samuel, did they steal anything from you?" I asked.

"Yes, they did." Oak said.

"What were they about?" I asked.

"Uhm... Why?" Oak asked.

"Because Scarlet says the man was looking for Cammy. I think he probably mistook her for Cammy and wanted to take her." I said.

"They stole files about you and Cammy." he said.

"About me...?" I asked. I knew Oak had some files about Cammy, but me...?

"Yes, about your stay in the pikachu colony." he sighed. "Somebody now knows that you're there and that you're successful." he said.

"Crap..." I said. "I think it's better that we keep Cammy at my parents for the time being." I said.

"Why? You don't know who stole anything." Oak said.

"Did you tell anyone that you have a white pichu?" I said.

"Well, I didn't tell anyone. But when I was talking to a colleague Rosie and Jack came in with Cammy so he saw her... Then he asked and I explained. But I haven't heard anything about that ever since." he said. I got my phone out and searched the internet for something.

"Scarlet, did that guy look like this? I didn't see him properly..." I said while I showed her the picture. She looked at it and nodded violently.

"_Yes, exactly like that!_" she said. I showed Oak the picture.

"Oh no..." he said. "Do you think..."

"I fear so..." I said as I looked at the black suit which had a small pink R on the chest. Team Rocket was behind Cammy and me.

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><p><em>Yep, didn't see that coming. I hope. What, you DID see it coming?! DANG.<em>

_See you next time. ;)_


	22. Unexpected turn of events

_Hello all, and welcome to chapter 22 of Life as a Pikachu! I wished this part was longer, but it was better for me to cut it off where it ended and continue in the next part. Anyways, enjoy the next chapter! Please leave reviews, I want to know what you guys think about the story!_

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><p>It was back to business as usual. The hardest part of the winter was over now and temperatures were rising again. The first pichu were coming, probably within a couple of days the first were born. Lukas' mate, Lola, had some trouble moving around. Her belly had grown to the size of a small bowling ball and she was tired all day long. It couldn't take really long before she had to give birth too.<p>

Lola was a very funny pikachu. Since she was now the mate of the colony leader, she sometimes could be a real bitch. But at the same time she was one of the sweetest pikachu around, trying to help everyone out. Since Lukas was very close to me, it didn't take long for Lola to get close with me too. She was a bit suspicious first, but after awhile (she never was that close to me before) things were quite good between us. Lola loved to be scratched behind her ears just as Lukas and she had taken over Lukas' habit of sleeping next to me at night, but at the same time she wanted to sleep inside the nest (that two-sided character of hers...). It sometimes caused some fireworks between the two pikachu, but nothing really... Unhealthy.

It was the first time this year that we could sunbathe in the spring sun and we were doing exactly that. The sunrays were shining on my face and for the first time this year it didn't feel cold. The rays warmed my face in an relaxing way. On my lap and next to me were a bunch of pokémon that were also enjoying the sun (me, Lukas, Lola, Espeon and a bunch of pichu and just evolved pikachu). Lola had claimed my hands and she lay on my belly in some sort of sideways manner. This to prevent her laying on her belly (uncomfortable) or on her back (her belly would be pushing against her body). She loved the way I held her, which was a special way to prevent too much tension on any place of the pikachu body. Something I had learned from Nurse Joy back in my pokécenter days. Between my legs was Lukas with at least four pichu and against my sides were a couple of pikachu. I wasn't asleep, more like enjoying and dozing in the sun. Espeon was left of me with her head between her paws, clearly sleeping. Lukas, Lola and the pichu were also sleeping and a couple of pikachu were also sleeping. One or two were awake but close to falling asleep. I was thinking about all kinds of stuff... How to handle the new load of pichu, how Cammy would be when I brought her back to Jack and Rosie's nest, how things would go... And if Team Rocket would ever come for Cammy... Some worries I usually never have but this time I just thought about it. Wondering what kind of food I would take... When... Getting it within... A couple of hours... Berries... Apples... Maybe... … … Some... Nice... Sunlight... Warm...

"Pichu-PII!"

"PIKACHU-PI!"

"Pikapikapika-CHUUUUUUUU!"

"Chaaaaaaaa...!"

I quickly sat up to receive a couple of ungentle glares from the pikachu next to me. I had fallen asleep for a couple of seconds and fallen over due to the extra weight of Lola. I had landed on a couple of unaware pikachu which jumped up in response. Lola awoke with a small shock and looked around wondering what happened. She looked at me with dozy eyes before leaning on my chest and falling asleep again with a content sigh. Lukas looked at me (he and the pichu woke up from my action) and then stood up and stretched.

"_Let's get something to eat..."_ he said. _"I'm hungry."_

"No wonder, you've been busy with those pichu all morning." I said while getting up without disturbing all the sleeping pichu and pikachu. I had Lola in my hands, already deep asleep again. She didn't budge. She liked to take long naps the last couple of days, she was more asleep than awake. And when she was awake she ate a lot. We usually took food for her with us if we were getting some food. I heard some noise behind me. Dang, our silent retreat was noticed and a couple of pichu and pikachu followed us towards my sleeping bag. I placed Lola inside there and covered her up. She got herself comfortable without waking up and continued her sleeping. Lukas quickly watched her before he followed me and jumped my shoulder.

"_Let's go to the apple trees!"_ he said.

"But there aren't any apples yet." I replied.

"_There surely are some."_ he said before he pointed his paw towards the path leading towards the clearing with the apple trees, followed by about four pichu and five pikachu. All pikachu were evolved pichu from last year. It was great to see them grow up and even better to know that I helped them with doing so. Some of the older pikachu looked at me and wondered where I was going, but they didn't really care. I went away more often with some pichu (or rather: the pichu followed me outside the colony as well) and never something went wrong. One time one almost got killed when it annoyed another pokémon, but some quick response from Lukas had prevented that it had been attacked to death by another pokémon.

We were walking through the forest when I looked at Lukas.

"Ever thought about being a dad? It won't be long before you become one." I said to Lukas. He looked at me from my shoulder and then looked down to the ground.

"_Well... Yeah... I'm not really sure if I would be a good one..."_ he said. I gave him a surprised look.

"Why not? You're with pichu all day long! Why would you be a bad dad?" I asked him smiling.

"_Well I'm not sure... What am I supposed to do?"_ he said unsurely. _"What if they... What if they don't like me..."_ he said softly and on a unhappy tone.

"Don't like you?" I said as I stopped. Lukas looked at me from my shoulder. His face was a mixture being unsure and unhappy.

"You really think they won't like you...?" I said, smiling to him.

"_I don't know... I feel so... Strange about it..."_ he said while looking to the ground, evading eye contact with me.

"Oh, don't worry about it." I said smiling. "Just do whatever your body tells you to do and you should be completely fine."

"_You think so?"_ he asked me.

"Of course. That's why they invented instinct." I said, checking the surroundings for potential danger while keeping an eye on the pichu in front of me while we walked in the huge grassland which housed a couple of apple-trees on the other side.

"_Instincts?"_ Lukas asked.

"Yeah, instinct. Something you do in certain situations. Like fleeing or attacking." I said.

"_Oh..."_ he said before I stopped walking.

"_Why are you stopping...?" _he asked.

"Because we're already there silly!" I said smiling. I looked over the pichu and pikachu as we sat down and enjoyed some sunlight while eating some apples and berries. The pichu loved to move outside the colony to explore other stuff. I already showed them the river, the lake nearby the colony and also this place. They loved it. The grassy lands were a perfect place to play with each other and had very much different scents and stuff to see.

I also played a lot with the pichu here. Teaching them how to find their way home by detecting my scent back to the colony and using their surroundings to find their way back. This is also why almost noone of our pichu got lost... Pikachu didn't seem to teach it to their cubs, but I did and it worked. In my time only a couple of pichu had gone lost, which was not much according to Vera and the other pika-sitters.

I looked at the pichu and a couple of pikachu. Lukas was in the tree on the lookout for any potential predator. He was helped by a couple of pikachu which were very interested in his way of looking around... Or so it seemed. At least they got to know how to watch for themselves.

I looked down. One of the younger pikachu looked at me and smiled in a way that said "Will you come and play?" came to me and pulled my arm, wanting me to come. To be honest, I actually was very grown up for my age. I stopped playing 'childish' games like tag, hide-n-seek and so on quickly when I was young. The pichu were a excellent excuse to play these games even though I was 'grown up'. It didn't matter for me anymore. Even in front of a class full of students I would still play with any willing pikachu now. I stood up and joined the rodents in their game, which appeared to be shock tag. The problem was that I couldn't shock anyone, and they knew that darn well. So every time I got hit by them they laughed at my fake attempts to release electric attacks which would always fail after which I would chase them down. After a small thirty minutes of playing it was time to return to the nest. Lukas gathered all the pichu and pikachu by just one shout from the treetop. We then returned to the colony. As soon we entered the colony we were greeted by a pikachu. He looked at Lukas.

"_Lukas, you should get inside." he said quickly. "It's Lola..." _he said.

Lukas and me exchanged one more glance before I saw him running inside the nest as quick as he could.

**3 weeks later**

"Zack, Josh, Julie... Get over here! I've got something for you!" I said as three pichu made their way over to me. They looked at me when I showed them their first apple. They checked it out, sniffed it and pulled some interesting faces. I broke the apple and gave them very small pieces of the fruit. They looked at it with big eyes and then back at me. I just smiled and took a part of the apple myself. That triggered Zack to take a bite of the apple which immediately was followed by almost throwing the rest of his piece of apple in his mouth.

"Jeez, you're just your father." I said as Lukas blushed a bit. Lola giggled at that comment. Both pikachu had brought their pichu outside for the first time about one week ago. Whilst normally they would stay inside for at least three weeks, the weather was so nice today that both pikachu had decided to bring their kit outside the nest earlier. Lukas hadn't been outside for a long time. He only came outside to drink and to get some food, which he practically stole from me. But since it was his first time of becoming dad, I just let him go and take my food. Zack was a more aggressive pichu while Josh and Julie were more gentle and more careful. But all of them were still cute, just as the other pichu that were born. They were the first three to be born, but shortly after Lola more females had given birth to the new pichu of this year. It was great to see and at the same time it was a pain because my job got busier and busier every day. All those pichu had to be trained on the colony life and the colony rules and don't forget that these pichu were younger than their older counterparts. The older pichu (and evolved pikachu) were now used to me and to what I did which meant we could work together flawlessly. The new pichu didn't understand any of those signals and those commands, like when they had to come back to me at once or when they had to hide immediately. The older pichu however had more skills and more experience which made them very loved by the newborn pichu. It was funny to see them showing off some electricity tricks which they had mastered in the past year while the younger pichu watched with amazement.

It didn't surprise me that Oak wanted to see the newborn pichu. He had sent me a text message if he could come and check me over. He also had a surprise for me, he said. I invited him over and told Volt (the leader of the guarding pikachu) that there would be a man in a lab coat coming to see me inside the colony. He nodded in agreement and two days later Oak was coming towards our colony. One of the guards had spotted something suspicious and while he and Volt went out and checked things I had hid myself with the young pichu, just in case. Hiding was one of my best parts now I was with the pikachu and specially since I was with pichu I had to protect. I saw Oak coming towards me. He couldn't see me and even though I was lying right next to him in tall grass, he just walked past me. I stood up without making and sound and the pichu quickly latched into my clothing using their nails. Some followed me on the ground.

"Hello there!" I said with a happy voice.

"WHAAAA!" Oak said as he jumped and looked around.

"Where were you... I couldn't find you!" he said as he looked at me.

"That's exactly what I wanted." I chuckled. "These are newborn, you know... I cannot risk it."

"I see..." Oak said as he looked at me. Pichu were all over my body and a couple of them were trying to climb down or up towards my shoulder or down towards the ground. The rest of them just hid themselves behind my legs and waited what that other scary big human was gonna do.

"You're really..." he said with open mouth. "Really a baby-sitter?"

"Yes, I am. You knew that, didn't you?" I asked him while I grabbed some pichu and put them on the ground as I sat down. Immediately half of the pichu climbed my lap and decided to watch that old man from my lap.

"Yes, I knew that. But not that you were that close to those pichu." he replied.

"Well I am!" I chuckled as we had a nice talk about the pichu. Even Lukas and Lola came to check on Oak. Just as they wanted to leave, Oak suddenly jumped up.

"Hold on Lukas, I want to show you and Maurice something." he said. Lukas looked at me and then at Oak while I did the same. I didn't have a clue what he wanted to show me.

"Remember I said I had a surprise for you?" Oak said.

"Yes..." I said as Oak took out a pokéball and showed me.

"You got Scarlet for me?" I asked happily.

"No, no. Close, but no. Just open it, I'm sure you'll love what comes out." he replied.

"Okay..." I said as I grabbed the pokéball. I threw it in the air and it opened. The white light formed a pokémon. A pikachu, that was clear. When the light was done, there was a... Pikachu in front of me. But no ordinary pikachu. She was white, had purple cheeks and stripes...

"Cammy!" I said. Cammy looked around a bit, spotted me and immediately ran for me and jumped my chest.

"Who-ho-oooooooooooooooooooOOOO" I said as Cammy pushed me over easily making me fall backwards with the pichu in my lap.

_"MAURICE!"_ she almost shouted before I fell backwards. She licked my face at a frantic speed before I pushed her away a bit.

"Down girl- Down!" I laughed as Cammy tried to lick my face again. I grabbed her and sat straight up, holding her.

"Wow, what a beautiful pikachu you became!" I said as I looked all over her. Her eyes were as black as it could be and her body was a very light grey. Her cheeks were a combination of pink and purple as well as the stripes on her back and the colors on the start of her tail.

"_Yes, I really love to be a pikachu!"_ she said as she leaped from my chest and landed right next to me. She looked to the right and saw Lukas. Lukas was kind of frozen while Cammy had jumped me. Cammy realised it was Lukas. The same thing happened. Cammy shouted Lukas' name and then jumped Lukas too, except that she now pulled him into a tight hug.

_"Heeee-EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-yyy Cammy!"_ Lukas said as he freed himself from her very firm grip, even though Lukas was clearly bigger than her. "How are you?" he said happily.

"_I feel GREAT!"_ she said as she rubbed her cheek against Lukas cheek and purred. Lukas blushed a bit. This all to displeasure of Lola, who already had enough of Cammy. She came close and pushed Cammy away from Lukas.

"_What do you think you're doing with my mate?"_ she said at a angry tone while she took a defensive stance with her tail high in the air. _"He's mine and you're not taking him."_

"_But I'm..."_ Cammy said.

"_I SAID YOU'RE NOT TAKING HIM!"_ Lola shouted. This made Cammy quickly hide behind me, sticking her head around my body and looking at me and back to Lola.

"LOLA!" I said with raised voice. Lola almost jumped when I did that. She looked at me with guilty questionable look.

"Cammy is just happy to see Lukas after a long time." I said. "Don't be so harsh on her, she won't take Lukas away from you. She just knows Lukas from her pichu time." Lola gave Lukas a questionable look before Lukas went over to Cammy and nuzzled her face and cheeks. He licked her cheek and then purred too. Cammy squeaked happily.

"_Sorry..."_ Lola said. _"I just don't want that Lukas has another mate now we got Zack, Josh and Julie..."_ she said blushing and looking towards the ground before she jumped my lap and started to lick Julie.

"_What? Lukas, do you have pichu as well?!"_ Cammy said.

"_Uhm... Yes I have."_ Lukas said unsurely.

"_That's so cool! Jack and Rosie have pichu as well! I love them!"_ she said as she hugged Lukas again (Lola pulled a face) and then checked on the pichu.

"They're smaller than Kim and Charlie!" she said.

"They're only three weeks old." I said to Cammy. "Really young, so be careful with them...! By the way, who are Kim and Charlie?" I added because the shine in Cammy's eyes said more than enough: She wanted to play with them. Knowing how she was with the other pichu I just made sure she understood that she had to be careful. She looked at me.

"You don't know Kim and Charlie? The pichu from Jack and Rosie?" she said.

"Oh, did mom finally give them their names?" I asked.

"Yep, she did!" Cammy said as she sniffed all the pichu. The pichu were scared to death for her (you don't see a white pikachu you don't know everyday) but this didn't bother Cammy. Most of the pichu wouldn't even move as they looked at her. They also wouldn't flee because they didn't want to leave my side. So basically Cammy gave them the biggest scare of their short lives. It didn't take long though.

"These are yours!" she said while checking three pichu in particular. Julie was sitting next to Lola and the other two quickly joined their sister as Cammy was suddenly interested in them. They quickly hid themselves behind their mother.

"What are you talking about...?" Oak said. He had been watching the whole scene and I suddenly realised I had been talking in pikaspeak the whole time. He couldn't understand it. I explained him what happened and I then stood up and took the pichu to one of their playgrounds. There were some pikachu playing with some other pichu. I placed the pichu that I had with me inside the playground. Cammy looked at all the pichu and sat in my lap. Two pikachu came running for her.

"_Cammy? Is that you..?"_ one asked.

"_Justin...?"_ Cammy replied.

"_Yes!"_ he replied before the three pikachu hugged each other. I looked at them and then remembered that Cammy had two brothers! They were happy to see her again, even though she was abandoned and banned from the colony. After then hugged her they placed their cheeks against one another and sparked a couple of times before they all giggled and ran off to play. Me and Oak looked at the three pikachu interact with each other. Just normal. They had big fun chasing one another.

It didn't take long however before one of the 'big' pikachu noticed that there was a strange pikachu running around the pichu. It didn't take long before Cammy was worked away from the pichu. This triggered other pikachu to see her as an intruder which made more pikachu threat her. Within seconds, she was, yet again, getting banned from the colony in an alarming rate. Some pikachu even forced her out by sparking their cheeks. Cammy quickly came running for me and jumped my lap when I didn't expect it since me and Oak were having a conversation. She jumped my lap and quickly hugged my belly. It didn't take long before about thirty pikachu surrounded us. Oak looked around and pulled an sort of scary face, but he quickly saw that the pikachu didn't come for him.

"Wow, what's the matter?" I asked. A couple of pikachu growled towards Cammy. Cammy looked very unhappy with all the attention she received. She was looked towards the pikachu with a scared face and she was shivering while she was holding my tummy.

"Oh, it's Cammy..." I said looking around. "Oak, I think it's better for you to go away..." I said while looking around. Some pikachu got really aggressive, even with me.

"Make room so she can go." I said. "And I'll punish anyone who attacks her." I quickly added. Some pikachu gave me firm and aggressive looks, but they moved. Cammy took some careful steps with me Oak right behind her. She looked left and right, but all other pikachu looked rather aggressive. Cammy's ears hang, her tail hang, and all of her body language said the same: She was afraid to death. She was even slightly crying...

After we left the colony and were a couple of meters outside of it, Cammy looked back and she looked at me. I kneeled down next to her and placed my hands around her.

"You alright?" I asked.

_"That was scary..."_ she said, shivering and some tears running down her cheek. She allowed me to pick her up and to pat her back while I gently cuddled her.

_"Th-They still don't want me..."_ she said, softly crying. Oak also patted her back and gave her a pikachu treat. This made her look happy again as she accepted the treat and looked at Oak with a heartwarming smile.

_"I never expected that to happen..."_ Oak said.

"I did, but I didn't think the whole colony would turn against her." I said as I scratched Cammy's ears. She purred happily.

"Alright, thanks for the chat. We'll keep in touch." Oak said after we had another small conversation.

"Yeah, bye. See you later." I said as I hugged Cammy one more time before she jumped Oak's shoulder.

_"You really are a handsome pikachu."_ I said as I tapped her nose with my finger. Cammy giggled and waved at me as Oak walked away. After Cammy had visited me I really wanted to get back to my home. But the new pichu kept me at the colony. I just couldn't leave them alone. I was kind of in love with those guys.

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><p>It was about one week later when I was playing with the pichu inside the colony again. I was teaching them to control their electricity by making them do all kinds of stuff when there was rumour at the back of the colony. I heard some pikachu shouting and some pikachu running. I quickly looked in the direction of the sounds to see four men running into the colony. Wondering whatever they could mean, I suddenly saw guns. Not one second later I heard gunshots. Adrenaline rushed through me as I understood this was serious and I quickly grabbed most pichu and simply threw them inside the nest as quick as I could. The pichu playground was always close to an entrance to the nest. I looked at the hunters and I recognised the poachers from months ago. I realised they were coming for me...<p>

"Kill them! Kill as much as you can!" one of them shouted. "I want revenge from the last time and if you see that jerk make sure you keep him alive!"

_"Don't hold back! Give them all you got!"_ I shouted in pikachu language towards the males that were attacking the poachers before looking around. There had to be more pichu around here since I hadn't secured all of them yet. Even though the poachers were in minority they quickly gained on the colony by shooting their guns. They shot at least three pikachu before one finally managed to take one out by giving him a massive thundershock which immediately floored him. I suddenly spotted the pichu. One of the poacher was getting close to them and he aimed his gun at them... My heart stopped but happily Lukas was just in time and he slammed a Iron Tail into the gun making it point to another direction and missing the pichu. I ran towards them.

"Get them, get them!" I heard someone shouting. I suddenly saw them throwing pokéballs towards multiple pikachu. They weren't only trying to kill but also catch pikachu! I arrived at the pichu and I came eye-to-eye with one of the hunters. He had lost his gun due to some perfect work from Lukas. He smiled at me with a fake smile.

"Happy to see us?" he said before be bashed my face without warning. I fell backwards onto the ground and it dazzled me.

"_GET UP MAURICE, HELP ME!"_ I heard from Lukas. I got up. It was my duty to protect those pichu, even if that meant I had to give my life for them. I didn't care at all anymore. I got up and attacked the poacher. We fought with each other, both evading attacks. He was clearly better at fighting than me, because he was winning the fight. Happily more pikachu arrived to help us out. This made us win the battle temporarily. The pikachu quickly went over to another poacher and me and Lukas, Volt and another pikachu were now standing up against this guy. I stood back, watching the poacher as he smiled at me. His gun was now lying somewhere, out of ammo and out of reach. I stood in front of the pichu and behind the pikachu who were dangerously sparking their cheeks. The poacher just smiled and got some pokéballs out of his pocket and threw them! I quickly leaped forward and slapped one pokéball out of the way. The ball opened and I got myself ready to receive a enormous electric whack from it.

But what happened then, I would have never expected. It would have never come up in me to even happen, or even be possible. Instead of the expected whack, the pokéball opened itself. I suddenly felt very light, like when you're going up in an elevator, or when you're going over a bump inside of your car. My body felt strange. I was sucked inside of the pokéball and the ball closed itself behind me...

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><p><em>Guess you didn't see that coming. And I can hear half of you think <em>_"Humans cannot be caught in pokéballs! WTF OMG OMG OMG!". I am fully aware of that. We need to stay original and unexpected, don't we? ^_^_

_See you next time!_

_Oh and Bloodstargeneral, congratulations with being daddy. ^_^_


	23. Scary events unfold

_New chapter! I hope you like this setup. You might be like "WTF is happening" but I hope some of you understand what actually is happening. :)_

_Enjoy and PLEASE LEAVE A REVIEW! I want to know what you think about this!_

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><p>It was silent. It was dark. I didn't know what happened to me. Was I inside of a pokéball? But... What the hell, it wasn't possible to be sucked inside a pokéball, wasn't it? But I was inside of one. How could I be inside of one? What happened to the pichu, what happened to Lukas? What would happen to me?! Humans couldn't be caught! They just can't! And I am a human!<p>

It just took a split second for me to think about all this. And at that same split second I thought I was a human, I saw white light. It was. Before I knew it, I was back on the ground at the exact position I had been sucked inside. There was only one difference: I was naked. My clothes were under my body and I was looking in the eyes of a completely infatuated poacher.

"But... But..." he said while looking at me with big eyes. "How in the world..."

It didn't take him very long before an evil smile appeared on his face. He got himself another pokéball which he threw at me. I was still completely confused by the fact I just had been sucked inside of a pokéball when I saw another one coming right at me. The ball hit me and opened. I got ready to be sucked inside... Again... The red light engulfed me... But this time, I was shocked by the red light when it failed to catch me.

"What the hell...!" the poacher said. "No problem, I'll finish you off myself then." He was about to attack me when an dark explosion occurred right in front of me. The poacher grunted in pain as he was blown away and landed on the ground next to his companion, who looked at him and then at the cause of the explosion. Espeon was standing at the border of the colony. She shot of another Shadow Ball towards another poacher that was attacking the pichu. This ball missed its target however and it slammed into the trees behind the poacher. Meanwhile Lukas was fighting like a lion to keep the poacher away from the pichu. Other pikachu joined him in this, which seemed to work pretty well. Lukas attacked the poacher every time he could by annoying the crap out of him and attacking his legs and torso as much he could. He was doing a better job than me, that was for sure...

However, the poacher got scared of the fact one of his friends got disabled. Espeon was also on her way towards us to attack the poacher. Lukas jumped past him, slid just past the pichu in the grass and immediately leaped towards the poacher at the exact same moment the poacher took out... A handgun. I felt my heart stopping. It was like I was watching the whole scene in high speed slow motion. Lukas jumped towards the guy with an incredible leap at the exact time he pointed the weapon at him. In slow motion I saw him pulling the trigger... The gun moved upwards just after a bullet came flying out of it because of the recoil. I looked at the poacher to see a content smile on the face of the man. Lukas was flying, his hind legs behind his actual back after he had just jumped. It was the worst sight I had ever witnessed. The bullet, a black sharp object was flying towards Lukas slowly while Lukas was flying towards the poacher and the bullet. Slowly both objects moved closed towards each other. I looked at the situation and got myself ready to declare Lukas for dead... He wouldn't survive a bullet straight through his head...! It was like the camera zoomed in towards the point of impact... Like you were watching an action movie... The bullet and the pikachu came closer towards each other... And then the bullet hit... I gasped... The bullet went straight through Lukas and... No wait... It didn't! Lukas continued his jump and the bullet shot right past him. From my point of view, it was like he was about to get hit but in reality the bullet shot past him, behind him for me. The slow motion suddenly came to an end as the 'movie' sped up again. Lukas jumped right past the poacher. The bullet continued it's way down and shot right into a... pichu. There was a loud bang as you heard the gun go off. After this bang, there was an awkward silence. Everybody looked towards the poacher who was still pointing the gun towards the small light-yellow creature. It was completely silence. Even the two other poachers were looking at their companion before looking towards the pichu. It was dead. There was no doubt about that. It didn't move and bright red fluid was making it's way out of the head of the rodent. Headshot...

I looked at the pichu, to the poacher and to the pichu again. Then it happened. Something was quickly building up in me. An uncontrollable rage. How dared he to get into this colony. How dared he to shoot at us, how dared he to try to capture us and HOW DARED HE TO KILL A PICHU FROM MY COLONY!

I jumped up, blind rage running through me. But I wasn't the only one. Lukas, Volt, and another male pikachu also had the same face expression. They were mad, very mad. It didn't take us long before the poacher was down. Me keeping to bash his body everywhere I could. He tried to resist but was quickly overpowered by all of us. There was no way he could stand up against all four of us. Volt gave me a warning glare, one that said I had to get the heck out of here. I looked at him and Lukas before I stood way back. The man was unable to move. I don't know if he was paralysed or not, but he probably was. Lukas prepared something and when I looked up I saw a huge thundercloud appearing out of nowhere. The cloud got bigger and bigger in just under five seconds. Then Lukas and Volt joined forces (the third male had fled ordered by Lukas) before they unleashed hell on the poacher. An enormous Thunder attack hit the three creatures. I closed my eyes and lay down on the ground, my arms and chest around and on the remaining pichu to protect them from this. After a couple of seconds the attack stopped. I looked up to see a carbonized body in front of me. The poacher was still alive, but barely. Lukas and Volt looked at each other before they jumped from the poacher and gave him a foul look, one full of hate and aggression. I could only agree. About the whole colony, including the three other poachers that were left, were looking towards Lukas. He gave them a aggressive glance that said "get the hell out of here or you'll get the same" They ran. They all ran away, fleeing away from this place.

I looked them running away, my breath heavy from what just happened. The rage I had felt had calmed a bit and I got dressed quickly before I made my way over to the killed pichu. Lukas was sitting next to it, trying to make it life. I went over to him, but Lukas already gave up on him. He took a couple of steps back, so I could see the pichu. It was Josh, one of his own pichu...

Lukas looked at his son. He looked helpless with a face full of disbelief. He took another step back and looked at Lola, who had been watching the entire battle from the colony entrance. He then looked at me broken hearted before he shook his head softly, turned around and ran away as quick as he could.

"Lukas...!" I said, but Lukas just ran. He went through all the pikachu before he disappeared in the forest at the end of the colony border. I stood there watching him go together with Volt. Espeon stood next to me. I then looked at the pichu again with disbelief. Why in all worlds this had to be Lukas' pichu? Why? The poor pikachu went through so much already. Lost his brother, mother and his father also died. And now one of his own sons had died whilst he had tried to protect him. And so did I. I suddenly felt very guilty. I was the pichu-caretaker. I had to take care of them, I had to protect them. Had I failed? Had I failed to protect the pichu? I looked around once more before I set off to find Lukas. On the way to the border of the colony I grabbed a pikachu I knew was very good at tracking others. I held it in front of me and told it to find Lukas while I ran through the forest. The pikachu looked at me for a while before he nodded and then lead me through the forest. We walked past a couple of known paths, we walked past some clearings before we ended up at the river, close to the place we drank water a lot. I stopped the pikachu, thanking him for bringing me here. He nodded in response before he looked at Lukas.

"You'd better go back..." I whispered to him. He looked at me before he returned to the colony. I watched him go before I turned myself towards Lukas and came closer to him.

"Lukas...?" I said softly. Lukas didn't respond. His ears were hanging and he was just sitting near the water, looking at it.

"Lukas?" I repeated as I sat down next to the pikchu. Lukas looked at me with a face full of grief, sadness, or whatever you would call it.

"... Leave me alone." he responded. I waited a couple of seconds before I answered.

"You know that I won't leave you alone." I said.

"... Leave me alone." he said again, but this time a little louder. I laid my hand on his back, but he quickly turned around and slapped it away.

"LEAVE ME ALONE!" he shouted before he turned around, sat down again and started to cry.

"I fucking hate humans... I hate them... ALL OF THEM!" he sobbed. I sat down next to him and laid my hand on his back again. This time he accepted it.

"All of them?" I said to him.

"YES!" he replied, almost shouting.

"Even me...?" I said after a short time. Lukas looked at me before he turned to the water again.

"All of them except one..." he replied. He cried again.

"First my brother, then dad and mom, and now even Josh..." he said before he buried his face in his paws. "I don't wanna feel like this anymore! I don't want to feel this feeling!" he sobbed almost shouting before he bursted into tears again. This time, I lifted him and placed him against my shoulder. I also cried. Not only because I felt very sorry for Lukas, but also because I loved Josh as a pichu. Lukas wasn't the only one feeling sadness. Lukas embraced my neck when I hugged him.

"It hurts... I don't know what I can do about it... It won't go away even though I want it to..." he said, crying. "I just can't stand the pain... I can't make it go away..."

I pulled him in a deep hug for at least ten minutes before we both broke the hug.

"I... I just don't want to..." he sobbed before hugging my chest again. "I feel sick of this... I feel like a failure..."

I scratched Lukas behind his ears with my hands.

"You're not a failure. I understand you feel sad." I said. "You know..." Lukas looked at me when I said this.

"Maybe it's time for me to go back to my home. To leave this colony." I said. "I feel very guilty because of... Everything what happened just now... They came for me, not for you guys..."

"What...?" Lukas said in disbelief. "You can't... go...!"

"Give me one reason to stay... Thanks to me your son got killed." I said, looking away from Lukas. Lukas looked at me with a questionable face.

"Don't say that..." Lukas said with tears in his eyes.

"My job was to protect all the pichu and I failed it." I said.

"You didn't fail it, you did great...! You stood with the pichu just as I instructed you a long time ago..." Lukas said with big eyes. "You scared me when you were sucked inside that pokéball...! I thought people couldn't be sucked inside!"

"Me neither... I don't know what happened..." I said as I looked away. Lukas cuddled me again.

"Please stay with us...!" he said. "I don't want to... To be alone... You're the only one I got..."

"And what about Lola and your pichu?" I said. Lukas looked at me. "Don't you love them?"

"Yes, but... I..." he said, looking down.

"I can't go back to the colony... I have failed to protect us... I..." he said before crying again.

"What's the matter." I asked, hugging him again.

"How can I ever go back to Lola... Josh..." he said while tears flooded over his cheeks. He was feeling guilty. Protecting your offspring apparently was very important in the pikachu culture.

"If I were you, I wouldn't worry too much about Lola." I said. Lukas looked at me.

"She's been watching you for the entire fight from the entrance. She was waiting for Josh to brought back in and until then she was waiting for him at the entry of the nest. If someone knows you did your best, it's Lola." I said.

"You think so?" he said.

"I'm sure of it." I said. "Let's head back now, because you need to comfort her and your children." I said.

"I guess so..." Lukas sighed. I groaned and grabbed my head.

"What's the matter?" Lukas asked.

"Headache." I said while I closed my eyes and wished for the pain to go away. It had been slowly building up since I went searching for Lukas. We both went back to the colony. It wasn't the best week for Lukas and Lola, but they both managed to get through. The pichu were about normal one day later, they didn't even miss Josh. Lukas often came to me to just cuddle a bit, just as when his mother had died. Lola didn't comfort him the same way as I did, I guess. I didn't know how pikachu mourn anyway... Do they even mourn? They can be sad, but Lukas had showed off more emotions than any other pikachu I've seen. Maybe he shows more because he's with me? Or maybe he's just a smart pikachu? I guess I'll never know that. I had to check on that with other pikachu like Cammy, Jack and Rosie and their pichu.

Meanwhile as the week went on, the headache I got didn't go away. In fact, it only got worse. Fun thing was however, during nighttime it was far less worse than overday. But everyday I woke up the headache got worse. After the third night Josh had died the headache got back and it was the worst I ever had. I called Oak and said that I would be coming to him to check on me, because I really had a bad time in the colony. I was grumpy, my head was hurting, it wouldn't stop, and I couldn't do my usual stuff normally. The worst thing of all: It appeared that I had lost my ability to speak pikachu. I just couldn't speak it anymore. This made communication with help of Espeon necessarily. After I while I was fed up and I told Lukas that I was going to visit Oak and that I would be gone for a couple of days if things were really bad. He wished me good luck before I got out of the colony and headed back to the laboratory.

I walked along the path towards the lab as I suddenly felt strange... The headache suddenly went... Away but immediately came back. There was something wrong with me, that was for sure. Wondering what Oak would tell me (I had told him I was sucked inside a pokéball, but he just laughed and said I had a good fantasy) I continued my way. I got both parts of the broken pokéball out of my pocket. I looked at them. The force on this thing had to be tremendous when it broke because the mechanism that made it open and close was broken completely. I entered the laboratory and went through the door towards Oak's room.

"Maurice!" he said happily as he saw me coming in. Immediately I felt something climb my back.

"Pika-pikachu!" I heard in my left ear. Scarlet was standing on my shoulder, happily smiling.

"Oh hi Scarlet..." I said, quickly getting her off my shoulder. She giggled and wanted me to pick her up again.

"Sorry Scarlet, I'm not in the mood to cuddle... I feel so freaking... - I grunted - ...bad..."

"You not wanting to hug a pikachu? There's really something wrong with you." Oak chuckled. Scarlet just tilted her head and looked at me. Maurice not wanting to play with her? He must be very ill then!

"Yes there is..." I said.

"Alright, when did it start? I'm not a nurse, but I know more about medics than an average person." he said.

"Uhm..." I said while thinking back. "After I was sucked in that pokéball, really." Oak gave me a serious look.

"Maurice, please stop saying that. Both you and me know that humans cannot be contained inside a pokéball." he said on a serious tone.

"No they can't." I said. "Yet still I got sucked inside one. To be honest..."

"Enough of that joke, please." Oak said again. "Now, please, when did it start?"

"Why do you not believe me?" I said.

"Maurice, you know very well that what you tell me is impossible." Oak said. I looked him in the eyes. I have him a look that I was dead serious. I wasn't joking.

"Well I'm not joking..." I said while I grabbed my head again, trying to get rid of another pain attack inside my head.

"So you were sucked inside a pokéball?" Oak said.

"Yes." I said firmly. Oak looked in my eyes to see if I was making this up.

"Are you... Serious...?" he said.

"GODDAMNIT, SAMUEL, I AM SERIOUS!" I said as I bonked my fist on the table we were sitting on. Scarlet jumped and looked at me with a scared look. She made herself small my lowering her head and body and looking at me with a guilty look.

"Oh, I'm not mad at you Scarlet..." I said as I gently scratched her chin.

"My god... So you were sucked inside a pokéball?" he said. "But, what happened? Can you explain me?"

I explained him everything. From the attack to the kill of the poacher. Oak and officer Jenny already knew that, so Oak wasn't shocked or anything. Jenny wasn't too happy that someone got killed but the body of the pichu I showed her said enough. The pikachu had tried to protect their other pichu by killing him. That's also what I said her. After I gave her a statement she had left. Later that day the body was collected by a couple of people.

"That's really interesting..." Oak said after I finished. "That's really really interesting."

"What is interesting?" I asked.

"The fact that you were contained inside a pokéball while you're not supposed to." he said. "As I said and as you know, it shouldn't be possible."

"I know that." I said. "But still, I was sucked inside that thing." I said while pointing at the table. I grunted. Pain. Lots of pain.

"I'm gonna take a nap. I'm not feeling well and I'm tired." I said. It was almost noon, a time I usually napped. I made my way to the emergency bedroom from Oak, where he sometimes slept when a pokémon needed urgent treatment and when it couldn't be moved to a pokémon center for any reason. Scarlet and Oak followed me. Oak gave me some medicine against my pain which I happily accepted. After I settled down in the bed and closed my eyes, my pain seemed to go away a bit. I sighed a bit as Oak went away and Scarlet jumped the bed. She patted my head with her paw and gave me a questionable look.

"Pikaaaa?" she said softly while she gently rubbed her cheek against me.

"I can't understand you sweetheart..." I said. "One way or another I lost my ability to understand you and I'm quite sure the whole pokéball thing has something to do with it. I only don't know what..." Scarlet didn't care. She dove under my blanket and nested herself next to me. With a content 'pika' she felt asleep quicker than me and I followed fairly soon.

After the nap I felt slightly better. Still bad, but a little better. I was back at the table with Oak. He looked at me.

"Still got headache?" he asked.

"Yes, I have..." I said.

"Just when I left the room, I heard you saying that you lost your ability to talk pikachu. Is this true? You didn't tell me yet." he asked.

"That's true." I said. "Somehow I can't speak pikachu anymore."

"You cannot speak or not understand?" he asked.

"Both. I cannot understand Scarlet and I cannot talk with her anymore." I said.

"That's very strange..." Oak said. He closed his eyes, shook his head like he was thinking like crazy.

"There's something strange going on with you. You have headache and you have lost your ability to speak pikachu. All in just a couple of... Seconds?" he asked.

"It looked like an eternity I was inside." I said. "I was sucked in... And I was thinking... About..."

"Thinking about what?" he asked.

"Thinking wasn't really possible for me to be in there. That I would be caught... It's kind of blurry for me there. What I do remember very clearly is that I thought that I was a human and that I was released immediately."

"That." Oak said while he pointed at me. "That." he said again while walking around the table.

"Something happened there. The exact question is... What happened." he said.

"Alright. Uhm, I want to do a couple of tests with you. Just to make sure some things." he said.

"Well, go ahead..." I said, looking at Scarlet. She looked at me questionable.

"Just talk with Scarlet. In pikachu." he said.

"I told you I cannot do that anymore." I said.

"I know, but try." he said.

"Alright then, let's try." I said.

"Uhm... Hi Scarlet, how are you doing?" I said. Scarlet smiled and talked back.

"Pikachu-pi! Pikachu-pika-chu-pi-pika-chu-pi?" she replied.

"Could you understand me?" I said looking at Oak.

"Yep, I could. Don't rush things, take your time." he said.

I closed my eyes. What helped if I couldn't talk pikachu was imagining I was one. That's exactly what I did. I imagined myself being a pikachu. I imagined... Pikachu... Yellow, small, electric...

*READFROMHERE*

It was like thunder hit me. Like something changed inside me in a flash, an explosion, the blink of an eye. I looked around, like in slow motion. My vision improved. My hearing improved. My sense improved and my scent improved. I looked around and in a split second I noticed I was in danger. I wasn't at a safe place, but inside something unfamiliar. Something I didn't know. Something with a strange smell. There were all kinds of strange smells here. And there was a human standing right next to me that freaked me out. There was also a female pikachu in the room which smelled quite good! But that was something to take care of later, first I had to escape this... whatever-it-was or at least made sure I was safe! I looked to the right very quickly. I looked around very quickly.

"Maurice? What's the matter?" the guy asked. I quickly took a couple of steps back from him and looked at him, very scared. Who knew what he was up to. My breath was heavy and I was very alert. I looked around and I saw an opportunity to escape. There was light coming from there. I turned around and ran towards the place and I wanted to jump through it, only to be stopped by something invisible which I suddenly hit.

"Maurice?! What the devil are you doing?!" the guy asked as he came for me. This triggered me to get up quickly and run around the metal object in the center of the room. I had to get away from here. The guy came right after me and he blocked a couple of escape routes. I had to... I jumped one of the metal things and climbed it, throwing everything in my way down. It created a huge mess, but I didn't care.

"MAURICE! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!" I heard. He didn't follow me. I was up some kind of thing and he was watching me from above. More people came in. The pikachu looked at me from the table.

"What happened, professor Oak?" one female asked.

"I don't know what got into him." Oak said. "He went crazy from one to the other second. I just asked him to talk pikachu language. You've seen him doing that with ease earlier."

"Why is he up there and why is he looking like he's scared to death?" a guy asked.

"Scared to..." Oak said as he looked at me.

"Leave the room." he instructed. He also left but came back quickly. That thing that could open could be the exit from this. I was alone with him and the pikachu. The pikachu was just staring at me, looking kind of shocked. The guy, apparently called Oak, came closer to me. I looked him coming. I growled. He had to go away, leave me alone. Oak took a step back, but then continued his approach to me. I watched him coming. If he came a bit closer I could jump over him and run for the thing that could open and close. I waited a little more before he was close enough. I jumped down on a table, scattering all kinds of white stuff around but I didn't care. I jumped from the table and ran for the opening thing. I saw the humans open it by pushing something down so I did the same. As soon I opened it and ran through it, I was tackled down by three other humans. Immediately they made me unable to move.

"LET ME GO!" I shouted before I sparked my cheeks and released a thunderbolt... At least, that's what I tried to do because nothing happened. I wiggled, but I couldn't move. I did my best, but the three humans were stronger.

"LET ME GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" I shouted again.

"He's- talking- pikachu..." one of them said while he panted when he tried to control me.

"Pikachu...?" the Oak guy said. "Wait, that may be it."

The Oak guy ran around me and sat in front of me quickly. He forced me to look at him.

"You're a human Maurice, a human!" he said.

"Human...? Was he crazy or something? I wasn't a human! I was a pikachu!" I thought.

"You're a HUMAN!" he shouted.

"I'm a human, sure, I'm a..." I said as I was hit again by the same force that hit me a couple of minutes earlier. Not really a force but it felt like my body received a mental slap when my vision blurred, my hearing went worse and my smell went away. Or so it felt. I stopped resisting the people on top of me and grunted.

"Get off him." Oak said while getting up. His assistants got up from me and looked at me while I got up. A bit wobbly I grabbed the wall to stay on my feet.

"How do you feel...?" Oak said.

"What happened...?" I said while standing against the wall.

"I was about to ask you that." he said. "Come on inside." he said as he gently grabbed my hand and led the way inside. I was a bit confused right now and I sat down on a chair in the room while I got myself together. Oak looked at me with a worried face.

"Are you alright...?" he said.

"Yes, I think so." I said while opening and closing my eyes a couple of times.

"Yes, I am." I said.

"Can you remember anything?" he asked.

"Everything." I said.

"Well, what happened?" he asked.

"Well, you asked me to talk pikachu. So I tried and failed the first time. So I imagined that I was a pikachu, this helps me to talk pikachu sometimes. Remember I told you that it goes easier when I imagine I am one?" I asked.

"Yes I do remember that." Oak said.

"Well, as soon I imagined myself being a pikachu, I..." I said as I had to think.

"My vision went better, my hearing improved, I could smell much better and it felt like I was in danger, like I had to escape this place..." I said. "I was also scared of you." I said as I looked at Oak.

"Scared of me and you had to escape..." Oak said. "Sounds like a fight or flee response to me." he said.

"So I tried to jump the window, but I couldn't, and I didn't know why. Then you came for me and I fled away, that's why I climbed your cabinet." I said as I pointed to the place I had been hiding for a while.

"Then you came close after you ordered everyone to leave and I felt my only chance of escape was the door. I could use the door because I saw you using it before, so I jumped from the closet and jumped the table and I remember that I was annoyed by the papers..." I said as I pointed to the mess on the floor.

"Then I went through the door and I was tackled by your staff. I shouted that you had to let me go and I tried to do a thundershock but it didn't work." I said as I looked at him. "And as soon you shouted to me that I was human it was over." I said. Oak looked at me for a while.

"That's... Weird." Oak said while he looked at me.

"It indeed was very strange." I said as I grabbed my head and tried to remember all the stuff.

"Oh, I also remember that I liked you, Scarlet." I chuckled. "You smelled quite nice." I said as I looked at her. She was on the ground and she was looking at me. I got up and moved closer to her, but Scarlet recoiled and looked at me with a scary face. I looked at her.

"What's the matter...?" I said.

"I think you scared her a bit with what happened just now." Oak said.

"Aww..." I said as I kneeled down next to her and gently scooped her off the floor. "No need to be scared of me. I know that it may be a bit scary what just happened... But I'm still Maurice." I said. Scarlet just looked at me and hugged my chest. I hugged her back and sat down on the chair.

"You know, you smell nice... I remember that your scent was really... Sweet." I said as I moved my hand through her fur and back. Scarlet purred.

"Pika-pikachu-pi?" she said. I looked at her and shook my head.

"I don't have a clue what you said just now..." I sighed. "I wish I knew why I don't understand you anymore." I said. Oak turned his head to us. He had been staring out of the window thinking about some things.

"You say you liked her scent... That's strange because normally humans shouldn't be able to smell that." he said. "At least, not what you describe... Can you put your nose into her fur, smell, and tell me what you smell?" he asked.

"Sorry...?" I replied. Scarlet gave Oak a surprised but amused look.

"Just... Just do it." Oak said as he held his hand before his eyes like he was thinking really deep.

"Uhm... Alright..." I said as I moved Scarlet in front of my and ruffled my nose through her fur and inhaled deeply. A scent of pikachu fur and... Sweat entered my nose.

"How does it smell?" Oak asked without looking at me.

"Just like... Pikachu. Sweaty, I'd say." I said. Scarlet gave me an angry look.

"Sorry Scarlet, but humans don't like pikachu smell." I chuckled. She rolled her eyes and sat down on my lap trying to make me stroke her, what I did.

"That makes clear that you certainly were... Uhm... Different just now..." Oak said.

"Yes, I was... I don't know what..." I said as I sighed. "OH... Maybe this is useful." I said as I got the broken pokéball from my pocket.

"What's that?" Oak asked.

"The pokéball that caught me. It broke when I escaped." I said.

"Why didn't you show me that earlier?!" he exclaimed. "Well never mind that. Give it to me." he said. I gave him the pokéball.

"Jeez, this thing isn't just broken. I've never seen such a thing..." Oak said. "Maybe..."

"Maybe what?" I asked. Oak walked over to one of his machines and placed the pokéball on it.

"Let's see if I can read it." he said. But the machine produced nothing but errors.

"Broken really badly." he said. "I should... This may be the key..." he said as he held the parts of the pokéball in the air.

"You should what?" I asked, still scratching Scarlet behind her ears.

"I'm gonna contact Bill. Maybe he can read this thing." he said.

"Bill? You mean the creator of the pokémon storage system? And can you read pokéballs?" I asked.

"Yes, that Bill." he said. "He would come anyway, I wanted to share your experience with him. And yes, you can read pokéballs."

"Wasn't my pikachu thing supposed to remain secret?" I asked.

"Yes, but you're close to quitting." he said. "You told me and I think it's been enough. At least for now." he said.

"But, I don't want to quit..!" I said. "I want to stay with the new pichu." I chuckled. "They're adorable."

"Alright, but I wanted to show you to him anyways. Maybe he can tell me what's wrong with you. He also has better equipment to check this." he said as he pointed towards the two pieces of pokéball lying on the table.

"Alright, I guess I don't have choice." I said. "By the way, my headache is completely gone now..."

Oak got to the phone and dialed a number. A couple of seconds later a man appeared on the screen.

"Hey Samuel, how are you?" he asked.

"I'm fine, thank you." he replied. "Bill, I need your help. I got a problem I can't really explain here, could you come to me as soon as possible?" he asked.

"You mean right now?" he asked.

"As quick as possible..." he replied.

"And why, if I may ask?" he asked.

"It's about that pikachu project I was talking about. I think we have a little problem with it and I need your opinion on this." he said. "And could you take your pokéball reader with you? That thing that can read broken pokéballs." he said.

"You mean this?" Bill said as he opened a tray and got some device out of it.

"Yes, that. And a strong laptop." Oak replied.

"Sure thing. I'll leave at once. You're lucky I'm at Kanto." he replied.

"I knew you were in Kanto." Oak chuckled. "You would visit me, wouldn't you?"

"Oh... I forgot all about that. Good thing you called." he said. "I'll be there tomorrow. If I go now I'll be there in the late evening so I think I'll stay at my cabin and come to you tomorrow."

"Sure thing, see you then." Oak said.

"Bye!" he said. Then the connection closed.

"He's kind of... Strange, isn't he?" I asked.

"He sure is, but he's a genius. He knows more of pokéballs than anyone else since he invented the system behind it and he knows a lot about pokémon." Oak said. You can return to the colony if you'd like and come back tomorrow.

"I'll stay here, just to be sure. I won't go back there with that headache, I have a bad influence on the pichu if I feel bad." I said. "Are Jack and Rosie back to their nest already?"

"Yes they are, you could visit them." Oak said. "Your mom didn't really want them to go away and I know you also prefered Cammy to stay home because of Team Rocket, but Jack and Rosie... Well, they just wanted to get out. Back to their old place I guess." he chuckled.

"I really want to see their pichu again..." I said as I walked towards the door. "Scarlet, you coming with me?" I said to the pikachu in my arms. Now that my pain was gone I felt so much better.

"Pika!" Scarlet said happily. She climbed from my arms to my shoulder and gently rubbed her head against mine.

"Heh heh, good girl." I said as I tickled her chin.

"Chu!" she said before I said goodbye to Oak and we headed out of the door towards Jack, Rosie, Cammy and Kim and Charlie to say hi. Wondering what Bill could possibly think of my condition I spend the afternoon playing with Cammy (which immediately jumped me when she noticed me), Scarlet and Kim and Charlie. They still remembered me and they both loved me, just as the pichu back in the forest. They both loved playing on my body by jumping around me and by trying to catch my fingers. In the evening I went back to the laboratory and went to sleep early. The next day would be full of research and probably full of surprises... At least I hope I know what is happening to me tomorrow...

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><p><em>Alright, next chapter will be very interesting! And yes, I promise, the guy will be a pikachu. I can now promise you. How? That's something you'll have to wait for. CLIFFHANGER! :P<em>


	24. Checking for changes

_Hello everyone, a new part of Life as a pikachu. I want to start off by thanking everyone for giving me 100 reviews (and Dustchu for the last 23 reviews :P). I'm a little slow with the story right now, but real life takes some time from me. Sorry about that, but I made a long chapter for you guys to enjoy. Thanks for reading and don't forget to leave a review!_

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><p>"Alright, and who might you be?" Bill asked as he offered me his hand.<p>

"Maurice." I said as I shook it.

"Pleasure to meet you Maurice! And you too, in person... erm... pikachu this time, Scarlet." he chuckled as he petted Scarlet's head.

"Pika!" Scarlet said happily from my shoulder.

"So, what's the reason I had to come this quickly?" Bill asked as he put down his bag and some stuff he had been carrying.

"Well actually Maurice is the reason." Oak said. I smiled as Oak pointed at me.

"Uhm, alright, but what's the reason I had to come for Maurice?" he chuckled.

"We'll explain you that while we have a cup of coffee." Oak said as we headed to the sitting room where we sat and had something to drink. I had a coke which Scarlet was eager to try - only to pull a face at tasting it and trying to get the tingling away. Me and Bill just laughed at it before we explained everything that happened again. My experiment with the pikachu colony, what I had been doing, how I was sucked inside the pokéball during the battle (Bill didn't want to believe it at first), how I had headache (which was back, not that bad, but it was back) and how I suddenly went kind of crazy and what exactly happened while I was in that state. We also showed him the pokéball which he examined.

"I've never seen a pokéball broken like this." he said when he checked it. "I'll try to get some information out of it later, but please tell me again how you felt when you... Well, when you changed." he said. After another explanation we both looked at him. Bill stared at the ground.

"Alright..." he said. "I want to do some stuff with you."

"You said that you changed as soon you imagined you were a pikachu. You also said that your senses changed." he said.

"That's correct." I said.

"Do you think you can do that again?" he asked. I looked at him. We had never tried again to get me in that form.

"Because everything you describe sounds like you were a pikachu." he said.

"That's what I thought." Oak said. "But he's a human... How can he be a pikachu?"

"That's the point..." Bill said. "He cannot be. But somehow it's possible, if what you told me is true. But I want to see this." he said.

"But if I... Change and it will work I'll probably try to flee again." I said.

"That's why we're gonna tie you to a chair." Bill said as he stood up like it was the most usual thing in the world. "So you cannot escape."

"I'm fine as long I don't get hurt. Never underestimate a pokémon or human in panic." I said.

"No, we won't." Oak said. "Let's get going, I think Bill has a conclusion already but he wants to test it." he said.

"I don't have." Bill said. "I only know what you told me and that's it." We headed to the laboratory where I stood next to the table while Oak and Bill got some ropes ready.

Then I was tied to the chair. Kind of strange when you just sit still when someone's binding your arms and legs, your natural response is to move your body to prevent yourself from getting stuck. After I was tied, Oak and Bill asked me some last questions before they asked me to change. Scarlet was also watching me.

"Alright..." I said. I closed my eyes and I imagined myself being a pikachu. Things went exactly as earlier. My vision improved. My hearing improved. My sense improved and my scent improved, exactly as happened earlier. The same feeling of danger got into me as earlier, like I had to escape. I looked around and I saw two humans. I recognised the Oak guy, but that other one was new and strange. I also immediately saw the female pikachu. She was watching me with interest. I tried to get away, since the men were quite close to me, but I suddenly realised that I couldn't move. I tried to move again as an adrenaline rush shot through me when I realised there was no escape. I looked at the two men and I tried to shake myself free, but without any succes. My moves got wilder and wilder as I tried to break free, but without success. When I realised there really was no escape, I looked at both men. They looked at me and one of them looked really... Shocked.

"See what I mean?" Oak said.

"I do... What the hell... I..." he said, stuttering.

"I've never seen something like this..." he said. He came close to me. I growled when he wanted to touch me and even tried to do a thundershock, which failed, to my frustration. The not-Oak-guy stuck his finger out to me and touched my skin, like he wanted to test something. I took my chance and bit his finger. He screamed and in panic, he slapped me across my face really hard. I took the hit and whined softly.

"BILL!" Oak shouted. I growled again.

"Sorry. He just..." he said. "Reflex, he scared me." while holding his finger in his mouth. Oak came close to me. I growled again at him and he took a step back when I heard a sigh from the table.

"_MAURICE! Get yourself together will you!_" Scarlet shouted. "_Jeez, you're aggressive._" she said while she jumped from the table. She walked over to me (Oak backed off) and jumped my lap. I looked at her, not really knowing to growl at her or just accept her.

"_Do you really think they'll hurt you?_" she said. "_I'm standing right here and you think they'll kill you?_" she said.

"_Well, I thought..._" I stuttered.

"_Yeah, you thought. But I'm standing on the table and I'm feeling perfectly fine and you're acting like you're almost being killed. Coward._" she said.

"They could kill you as well!" I said.

"_Really...?_" she said. "_So they will kill you but not me... Sure..._" she said as she rolled her eyes.

"_Just act normal and they'll untie you. Maybe we can play! I'm happy you can talk pikachu again!_" she said as her ears stood straight up and she smiled happily. Could be. Maybe we could play. I looked at the guys. They didn't really appear as... dangerous... The only thing I had been thinking about was escaping... But... It was confusing... How could they not be dangerous while... I shook my head.

"Looks like Scarlet has control on him..." I heard Oak whispering.

"Looks like it..." Bill said. "Let's hope he stays calm now."

I looked around and smelled the scents. I could smell different humans, some pikachu and pichu. The humans came closer to me. The female looked at them and jumped from my lap and towards Bill. She then climbed his body and stood on his shoulder, smiling at me in a challenging way, receiving some attention from him. She purred and looked at me again. Like she was challenging me to behave and get out of my chair. The human didn't look dangerous... The female pointed towards me.

"_You can get closer now._" she said while pointing at me.

"We should go check him out?" Bill asked. The pikachu nodded. Both Bill and Oak got closer and checked me out. I looked at them. I wanted to come closer to check them out, but I couldn't. I tried to get out again, a lot more gentle this time. It didn't work and I sighed and looked to them. Maybe they would help me.

"Shall we untie him? He looks calm now." Bill said.

"Looks like it. Let's just try." Oak said as he removed one of my ropes. I just remained silent and I watched as he untied me. When he untied one of my hands I immediately wanted to use it but something in my said to stay still and wait. After a short time I felt I could move again and I stood up and Scarlet jumped on the ground from Bill's shoulder.

"_See? Nothing to worry about._" she giggled as she purred to me. "_You're really acting different than you usually do..._"

"_What is this place...?_" I asked wondering what she meant with what she just said. I never met her before...

"_This is the place where Oak works, silly!_" Scarlet said. "_At least, I think so... You once explained it but I didn't really understand._"

"_Cool." _I said, not remembering any explanation. "_Are they nice humans?_" I asked.

"_I think they're nice! They are nice to me and they give me food. And Oak plays with me once a while! That's really nice. But I love to play with you!_" she said as I sat down on the ground and she jumped my lap. Somehow automatically I stroked her head.

"_But... I don't even know you!_" I said. "_I mean you smell nice but I never seen you before..._" I said as I hung my ears. Scarlet looked at me with a puzzled face.

"_And why am I so big... And you so tiny?!_" I asked. Scarlet gave me another puzzled look.

"_Well, because you're a human silly!" _she said as she seduced me for another stroke. "_You're funny._" I looked to Oak and Bill with a questionable look. Me a human? She must be crazy... I looked back to Scarlet. "_And who are those?_"

"_That are Oak and Bill. Oak lives here and Bill came today. Visiting or something._" she said.

"_Are you sure they're safe?_" I asked.

"_They are!_" she smiled.

"_Cool!_" I said as I stood up. I walked over to both human and smelled their clothing and offered them my hand. Oak accepted it with a completely stunned face.

"_I'm... Uhm... I'm..._" I said as Scarlet jumped my shoulder. "_Who am I?_" Scarlet looked at me.

"_Silly, can't you remember your name?_" she chuckled.

"_Ehm... I can't. I can't remember that I have any name..._" I said. Scarlet just blinked her eyes before she jumped from my shoulder to Oaks and turned around. She looked at me one more time.

"_Maurice, are you serious?_" she said.

"_Who's Maurice?_" I said as I looked behind me if she maybe was talking to someone behind me, which wasn't the case. "_I don't know a Maurice._" Scarlet shook her head a couple of times before she jumped back to my shoulder again.

"_Never mind. Forget it. Let's call you Maurice!_"she said.

"_Maurice? But..._" I said.

"_You don't like it?_" she asked.

"_Well I do, but... Who is that other Maurice?_" I asked.

"_Forget him. He's not important._" she said. "_But I hope he returns soon..._" she whispered softly. Then she showed me the laboratory. And I got to introduce myself to some humans. Quite strange to shake their hands, even though I don't know why I did that. Probably because I don't have a tail... Which is also strange. But I didn't really care - instead I followed Scarlet outside to play a bit with her. She was a really nice pikachu...!

"Strange."

"Very strange."

"Very very strange."

Very very very strange."

A long silence followed. Both pokémon professors looked perplexed to what was happening in front of their own eyes. A human boy, aged fourteen, was talking pikachu and acting completely like one.

"But with some human traits." Bill said.

"Indeed. Shaking our hands shows that Maurice is still there. The old Maurice, I mean." Oak said.

"Maybe. But I think we should get him out of this. He's already been like this for twenty minutes. And Scarlet is showing him around and such, but I think this is bad for him. He has to get back to human. You said that telling him he is human works?" Bill said.

"Last time it did. He uses his mind to talk pikachu. He imagines he is one. That makes talking pikachu language easier for him. If we ask him to imagine he is a human, he should change back." Oak said.

"Ah, so that's a trick to make him... Talk easier?" Bill said.

"Yep. At least, I think so." Oak said.

" Let's do it." Bill said.

"Maurice! Scarlet!" Oak said. Both creatures looked at the professor before Scarlet ran towards him and Maurice followed soon after. Scarlet stopped in front of Oak and looked at him with a questionable face.

"Come on inside, we want to make you do something." Oak said, smiling. Scarlet smiled as she jumped on Maurice' shoulder and both went inside. She purred and rubbed her cheek against Maurice' cheek before Maurice blushed and answered by gently licking the same cheek once. Scarlet giggled before she jumped the table and looked at what Oak and Bill wanted from them.

"Alright Maurice, we need you to do this." Oak said. "Imagine you're a human. Imagine you are one and not a pikachu." he said.

Human? But I liked being a pikachu. Well, whatever. My mind thought I was a human when suddenly my senses went worse and I lost control of myself... At least so it seemed... I closed my eyes and I wished this feeling went away...

I opened my eyes to see the two professors watching me. Unlike earlier, I didn't feel dizzy or wobbly, I felt perfectly stable.

"Maurice?" Oak asked while I blinked my eyes a couple of times.

"Yeah?" I asked, in human language.

"Damn, bad eyesight..." I said.

"Bad eyesight...?" Bill asked.

"Yes, I can see less than before, smell less than before and I can hear much less than before." I said.

"How do you feel?" Bill asked.

"Actually I feel great...!" I said while I looked at Scarlet and ran my hand over her head and across her back. Scarlet squeaked in enjoyment.

"And you... Don't try to make me your mate..." I giggled at her.

"Chuuuuu...?" Scarlet said on a funny tone.

"So... What just happened?" Bill said.

"Yes, I want to ask you the same. I don't know if you've seen us watching you, but we were speechless. And you don't get us speechless very quick." Oak said.

"Well, looks quite clear to me." I said. "I was a pikachu..."

"But..." Oak started.

"How's that possible." Bill finished.

"I don't know... But being a pikachu is surely interesting. So many smells around here and so many things to check out..." I said. "Feels like I'm four years old again."

"Like a child?" Bill asked.

"Yes." I said.

"Wait. Can you tell us what happened from the start?" he asked. And so I told them my story. I had been wondering what my name was and that I didn't know why I offered my hand to them. I told them of the outside. Of Scarlet and of the smells and things I had learned in the past hour or so. When I was finished Bill closed his eyes and thought deeply.

"Alright." he said. "I understand that there's something 'pikachu' inside of you. But can you access the memories of the 'pikachu being' right now?"

"Yes I can." I said as I thought back of the time I had been acting like a pikachu.

"Can you access human thoughts when you are a pikachu?" Bill asked.

"I believe not." I said. "I couldn't remember my name and I couldn't remember where I was. I didn't remember anything from the outside. Like trees, grass and such. I could use smell, sense and I knew there had been more than one pikachu in here. Now I'm human I understand it all. I was smelling Jack, Rosie, Cammy and the pichu." I said while I thought about that. Could it really be them?

"Alright... So it's kind of one way." Oak said.

"Yes." I said.

"Alright." Bill said as he got his laptop. "Can you give me that pokéball? I want to check if I can read it." he said. Oak gave him the pieces of the pokéball.

"I say it again: I never saw a pokéball this broken..." he said as he inspected it. Then he attached the pokéball to his laptop using some kind of special cord.

"Alright, I'm gonna access the internal storage of the pokéball. Let's see what's in there and what it sais." he said. I looked on the screen of the laptop. All kinds of special marks flew across the screen, unable to be read by the human eye.

"Hmmm... The internal storage is damaged." Bill said. "We can't really do anything with this, but..." he said as he stopped the processing and opened a special menu.

"Let's see what the dump sais." he said.

"Dump?" I asked.

"Data dump." Oak said.

"A pokéball doesn't have a internal storage only." Bill said. "A pokéball doesn't store a pokémon as digital data in the first place. It saves it as some kind of matter. Incredibly complicated, I won't even try to explain. But when, for whatever reason, something in the pokéball might fail, we do not want the pokémon that's in there to be damaged. Most of the times the pokémon will escape the pokéball without injuries, but for emergencies, we have a special data dump that activates as soon there is ANY kind of error. This could be a minor error but also a fatal error like when it breaks. This is to save the pokémon from being harmed if it cannot escape for whatever reason." he said.

"So basically... When a pokéball breaks, and it breaks badly... You turn the pokémon in digital data so it can be... Uhm... Revived later?" I said.

"Yes." Bill said. "I think that sums things up. The data dump is different from the usual way of storing a pokémon. Also, we use the digital version of a pokémon to send it from pokécenter to pokécenter. If a pokémon is sent over the globe, it's transformed into digital data. As soon the pokéball at the other side of the line has received the pokémon, it checks if it is received correctly over twenty times. This is why transferring takes quite a while."

"A while? You mean five seconds." I said.

"Yes, that's quite long." Bill chuckled. "After it has received the pokémon and checked it, it gets rid of the pokémon in the first ball."

"Get's rid of?" I said. "Like killing it?!"

"It's not killing. The pokémon has been moved already." Bill said. "That matter I was talking about earlier - when pokéballs are connected to those transfer machines, that matter is send over. Again, complicated, but it's sent over. Then we 'kill' the pokémon. Not really kill, but we make sure the pokéball is empty. After that the pokéball is empty and a pokéball at the other side is full."

"But... Couldn't you catch a very strong pokémon, break the pokéball, and copy the digital data and clone the pokémon?" I said, kind of shocked.

"In theory, you could." Bill said. "But the only one that's able to repair these broken pokéballs is... Me. And the laptop you're looking at isn't just an ordinary laptop, it's mine and this thing has higher safety than anything else. I can erase it's content from everywhere on the world and if someone manages to get it he needs so much passwords and he has to pass so much safety, he won't be able to do something with it. That's why I'm one of the few people that 'repair' pokémon." he said as he looked at me. "Oak cannot read this part of the pokéball, it's secured with measures you cannot even think of. And I don't 'revive' a pokémon just like that from the digital part of the pokéball."

"Ah..." I said. "Well that makes me feel a bit more comfortable."

"Good to hear." Bill chuckled. "Alright... Now we got something..." he said.

"This is very interesting..." he said after a while.

"What?" Oak and I asked.

"Oh, nothing." Bill said. "Maurice, I'm gonna ask you some questions and I want you to answer them all as detailed as you can and as accurate as you can." he said.

"Uhm... OK." I said.

"When you got caught in the pokéball, what were your thoughts." he said.

"My thoughts?" I asked.

"Yes, your thoughts." he said. "What were you thinking, what was happening, all that kind of stuff." he asked with a death-serious face as he looked at me from behind the laptop.

"Alright..." I said as I closed my eyes. "When I got caught... There was panic. The colony was being attacked by poachers. I was trying to protect a couple of pichu together with some other pikachu." I said as I reconstructed the happenings. "Lukas and other pikachu were attacking one of the poachers. Then suddenly a poacher threw some pokéballs to some pichu and pikachu and I thought I should protect them from it so I slapped them out of the way." I said as I opened my eyes.

"I had to protect the pichu and my colony." I said. "That's what I was thinking."

"Perfect." Bill said. "Keep reconstructing like this."

"What happened inside the pokéball?" he asked.

"My thoughts inside of there are kind of blurry." I said. "But I'll try my best."

"Alright. I was caught inside a pokéball. It was a white light that closed in front of my eyes. Then I thought 'what the hell, it isn't possible to get sucked inside of a pokéball'. I remember I was afraid. I also remember that I was wondering what would happen to the pichu and Lukas."

"Who's Lukas?" Bill asked.

"A pikachu from the colony." I replied.

"Oh, right. Continue please." he said.

"I was afraid of what would happen to me and I thought that humans couldn't be caught." I said. "At that moment I was released from the pokéball. I think it broke there." I said.

"Alright." Bill said.

"How did the inside of the pokéball look?" he asked.

"Dark. Just black." I said.

"Nothing more?" he asked.

"No, why?" I asked.

"Just curious, no human ever got caught." he said before he waved his hand to come towards him.

"Listen." he said. "When a pokéball is about to catch a pokémon, it checks what pokémon it is trying to catch. This happens in the small time just after the ball opens and before it starts sucking the pokémon inside. The pokéball does this check based on mass, size, and also based on brain waves."

"Brain waves?" I asked.

"Yes. Certain pokémon have different brain waves. The brains of pokémon have different masses and different ways of working and thinking. To make things short - it reads the mind of a pokémon."

"Mind reading pokéballs...?" I said.

"Yes. This technology is extremely complicated and I won't give you the details since I'm very sure you won't understand these. Even I have trouble understanding them." he chuckled.

"Anyway, the pokéball..." he said as he turned the laptop screen towards me (and Scarlet, which had jumped my shoulder again) "...has identified you as a pikachu. That is why you got sucked inside." Oak and me remained silent.

"Based on what Oak and you told me, it could be that your thoughts were indeed those of a pikachu, because you could speak pikachu and because you're with them for just over a year now. You have really adapted yourself to the pikachu life, to say it so." he said. "If someone imagines he is a pikachu, like a child or something, they do not have the same thoughts as a real pikachu. That is not possible. But since you were with the pikachu for a long time, you have adapted to them. Your thoughts indeed matched those of a pikachu." he said.

"But, this is where the magic happens. As soon a pokémon is caught, the pokéball gets data from a database. In this case, since you were identified as a pikachu, it loaded the data from the pikachu. This is to raise the chance of actually catching the pokémon and to make it feel more comfortable inside of the pokéball. You know that we advertise pokéballs with that pokécomfort thing. This is exactly when we do that. We check which pokémon is caught so the 'inside' can be prepared for, in this case, a pikachu. If a pokémon cannot be identified because values do not match, like a new pokémon or a pokémon that's never been caught before like legendary pokémon, it will load a default profile."

"But..." Oak said. "Why do you check on... Thoughts? Why not DNA? Then this would never happen."

"Hah, that's a good question." Bill said. "Do you know how long it takes to examine DNA? Too long. We indeed tested if we could check on DNA, but it appeared that the pokéballs we used all broke. They couldn't handle the amount of data that comes with DNA. Even the most simple string of DNA wasn't possible to read. So we built a special pokéball, the DNA-ball. Only one in existence. It had more internal storage and it had better processing powers. But enough about that.

" Like i said, the Pokeball loaded the profile of a Pikachu. The pokéball tried to load your data, or rather, YOU... - he said as he pointed at me - into a pikachu. But, you just told me that, when you thought you were a human, you changed back to yourself. You weren't your... Alter-ego 'Maurice-the-pikachu' anymore. The pokéball then had an error, and instead of loading you into a pikachu, it loaded a pikachu into YOU." he said. "In your human body."

"But, how is that possible?" I asked.

"Because you were converted to digital data." Bill said. "The pokéball could alter your appearance but before it finished you caused it to malfunction by 'escaping' from it in a way that never happened before so it had to spit you out with the changes that had occurred.

Everyone in the room remained silent for a while. Bill looked at his laptop with a serious face. He continued his search for clues to whatever had happened in that pokéball. To whatever had made me as I was now.

"But..." I said. "Don't pokéballs have a backup device in case of... When a wild pokémon escapes the ball?" I asked.

"Yes, they certainly have. But those all failed and I don't know why." Bill said. "I'm trying to figure out what exactly happened, but it's certainly strange. But it's strange in the first place that you got caught. That never-ever... Well... Happened but it did." he said slowly.

"Let's get something to drink." Oak said.

"Please." Bill said. "It's driving me crazy. This cannot happen. It's not possible and the proof I'm wrong is standing right in front of me." he said.

"One question - is it dangerous?" I asked.

"How do you mean?" Bill asked.

"Well, you said that the pokéball... Well... It altered me... Isn't that dangerous...?" I said. "Am I going to die...?"

"I'll be honest with you. I don't have a clue." he said. This made me pull a scary face.

"But the fact that you're standing here AND that you're able to switch to that... Pikachu..." he said as he paused for a moment. "I think you don't have to worry. If the pokéball really broke... Well... You... You wouldn't be here right now." he said. This made me smile again. He was right. I was feeling fine, I was just worrying too much.

"I want to do some testing with you." Bill said as he drank some coffee. I had some chocolate milk from the coffee machine which I shared with Scarlet, which seemed to love it. She was constantly begging me to give her more.

"I want to know what that... How that... How that..." he said as he moved his arms as he wanted to explain something. "I want to know if there's really a... Pikachu inside there." he said. "I cannot believe it is. But your behaviour was so strange that I believe it has to."

"But wouldn't that mean that he's changed forever? Would he be able to return to humans or will pikachu have a special effect on him?" Oak said.

"Oh, he certainly will be able to return to humans." Bill said. "I'm not even doubting that. I want to know if pikachu have any effect on him, or things that would make a pikachu happy." he said.

"So what do you want to do?" Oak asked. "Because I don't have a clue what you want to test."

"You still have those brain things?" Bill said.

Basically, twenty minutes later, I sat in a chair and I was looking at a screen. On my head were all kinds of devices attached that went to Bill's computer and that measured the small electric shocks that my brain used to do things that I wanted it to do.

"Alright." Bill said. "I'm gonna show you random pictures. Don't do anything, just look at them. I'll be able to see if you like them."

"You can see if I like them...?" I asked.

"Yes, I can. I can also see which parts of your brain are active. And I can say you that I'm already seeing some unusual things." he said as he and Oak looked at the laptop screen.

"Those are..." Oak asked.

"Yes." Bill said, pointing at the laptop screen. "And those are the other."

"What other?" I asked.

"Oh, nothing. Look at the screen please." he said as he pointed at a screen right in front of me.

"OK, what do I have to do?" I asked.

"Just look at them." Bill said.

"Oh yeah, you would know if I liked them." I said.

"Exactly." Oak said. Then the first picture came across. It was a TV. Just an ordinary TV. Then some other stuff you would find in any normal household. Then there came some more specific pictures. Stuff that pikachu liked. Appels, forest area's, but also a picture of Cammy appeared. I smiled when I saw it. Then it went on and a picture of Scarlet appeared (Scarlet wasn't in the room right now, she was banned from it for a while by Oak). After about ten minutes, we were done.

"Well, that was easy." I said.

"Wasn't that bad eh?" Bill said as he removed all the things from my head.

"Alright Scarlet, you can come back in." Oak said as he held the door open for her. She quickly darted inside and immediately inspected the things on my head. Bill was just removing the last one as she jumped my shoulder. Since my more gentle change into a pikachu Scarlet really seemed to like me. As if I was her mate already.

"Heheh, I like you too." I chuckled as Scarlet rubbed her cheek against mine again.

"Alright what do you have for me?" I asked Bill, who was now looking at his laptop. Oak joined him and he also looked at the data. The only thing I saw was some graphs with some numbers. But Bill and Oak were discussing different theories about everything and nothing at the same time and they seemed to understand. I lost interest and decided to cuddle with Scarlet instead, who happily accepted it. She squeaked happily when I stroked across her head and back, and especially behind her ears she didn't want me to stop. Then I started to scribble through her belly fur. Scarlet squeaked in enjoyment while I made a mess of her fur before I stroked in the right way to make everything nice and tidy again. After I had done that Scarlet looked at me while she climbed my chest with some help from my hands before she sighed happily and dropped herself in my arms that were holding her and burying her nose in my shirt.

"Why do you do that... I don't understand... Is my t-shirt so nice?" I chuckled. It didn't matter to Scarlet, she had nested herself against my chest, just under my chin and was about to take a nap. I hadn't noticed that Bill was watching me from behind his laptop. Oak had went out because he didn't like to wait for loading times. I just continued stroking the pikachu in a way I did with the pichu, a way to make them fall asleep very quickly. Under their chin and slowly across their belly while speaking sweet words to them. Most of the times when they were laying right next to me, but sitting in this chair worked the same on Scarlet, she immediately fell asleep. Not even five minutes after I had started the cuddle fest, she was asleep, her arms around my neck and head on my chest. I then looked at Bill, which had moved back to his laptop.

"Done already?" I said as I gently kept scratching Scarlet.

"Not yet." he smiled. "I'm running some tests, but it'll be finished in a minute or five." he said as he stood up. "Then I can tell you what's in there."

"I'm wondering what." I said.

"By the way, nice going with Scarlet. People so close to pokémon are very rare." he said. "You seem to perfectly understand her." he said. "Not that strange by the way..." he chuckled.

"And also, Oak told me something about Cammy. She's albino...?" he asked.

"Yes, she is." I said.

"So she's white?" he asked.

"Yeah, she is..." I said. "Here..." I said as I showed him some pictures of pichu Cammy and one of pikachu cammy.

"Wow, she looks nice." he said. "Can I meet her?"

"Uhm, I think you can." I said. "Wanna see her now?"

"Yeah sure!" Bill said as he stood up. "This thing will take a while..." I watched the screen and saw it needed another fifteen minutes to finish.

"Takes longer than expected..." Bill said.

"No problem." I said. "Hang on, I'll... Ah nevermind Scarlet won't mind."

"She would mind what...?" Bill asked.

"Oh, I wanted to put her in my bed but I think she'll get mad with me. She loves being outside." I said.

"Are you married to her or something? You seem to know everything from her." Bill chuckled.

"Not married, although she wanted to mate with me." I said.

"Mate... Wait, really?!" Bill asked. "Are you serious right now?"

"Yep. It was in the mating season. More females asked me to mate them in the pikachu colony..." I said as I stroked Scarlet a bit as we walked over towards the den of Jack and Rosie. "They thought I would do good since I'm quite important inside the group and since I'm big."

"Wait, just because you're big?" he asked.

"Well, also because I'm the smartest from the colony." I chuckled. "I don't want to brag or something but I'm a human inside a pikachu colony. I am smart. Those pikachu think different than I do, well, than WE do. They have different morals and ways of doing things. It's... Very complicated to explain." I said as I woke up Scarlet. She gave me an angry glance before realising she was outside. This triggered some of her instincts.

"Ears..." I said as I pointed at her ears. Bill looked questionable at me when Scarlet pricked up her ears and listened around.

"Eyes..." I said just before Scarlet looked around for any danger.

"And nose." I chuckled when she sniffed the air before she smiled and climbed my shoulder.

"Pika!" she said.

"All safe?" I said. Scarlet giggled and nodded.

"Dang, that's good..." Bill said. "Nice trick, I should remember that."

"When they wake up they all do this. Same order, same speed, same moves. Checking if their surroundings are safe." I chuckled as we reached the den of Jack and Rosie. "Not hard to remember when you're with them all year long."

"Still a nice trick to know. It's something small I never realised." Bill said. "I mean, I know they do it, but not in this order or when they wake up." he smiled.

"Rosie! Jack! Cammy!" I said into the den. "Kim! Charlie!" It remained silent.

"Hmmm, where are those guys." I said. "How late is it?" I asked.

"Uhm, around noon." Bill said.

"I think they're getting some food..." I said as I looked over Oak's field to maybe spot them.

"Do you know where they are?" Bill asked.

"Not exactly, but let me try something..." I said.

"CAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMY!" I shouted loud but slowly, making sure everyone in a range of two kilometers could hear it.

"Cammy always comes when she hears me calling her. It shouldn't take too long for her to respond to this unless something bad happened." I chuckled as we watched the fields and enjoyed the breeze and the sun.

"This is nice..." I said. Scarlet got bored with waiting and jumped a tree and climbed all the way to the top.

"Pika pikachu!" she said.

"A nice view up there?" I asked.

"Pika!" Scarlet confirmed.

"I thought you couldn't talk pikachu anymore?" Bill asked.

"I can't. But I can still guess what she's telling me. For the same thing she just said no when I said that she had a nice view." I chuckled.

"Oh, so you're guessing?" he said.

"Yep. This time I was right... And there is Cammy." I laughed when I saw a white tail sticking from the high grass and coming straight for me. It didn't take long before Cammy reached me.

"Pika-pi!" she said before she jumped in my arms which I held forward to catch her while I crouched. I underestimated her strength because I was basically tackled to the ground. Before I knew it I had fallen backwards and Cammy was licking my face again, just as back in the colony.

"Jeez, you're strong... Down girl down!" I laughed as Cammy licked my face and purred when she was lifted by me and placed against my chest. Scarlet came climbing down the tree and jumped the last three meters or so down.

"A bit stronger than you expected?" Bill laughed.

"Yeah, I'm still used to her as a pichu, she was so weak back then compared to what she can do now." I said when I gently stroked her head and back.

"Alright... Cammy, this is Bill." I said as I pointed to Bill and sat straight up. "He's a friend of Oak and he wanted to see you."

"Pika?" Cammy said as she had a questionable face.

"Yes, because of your color... But he's a friend. And I wanted to see you too. You're still my little girl..." I said as I pressed my nose against hers and gently moved it. Cammy giggled and purred before she hugged my face.

"Your little girl...?" Bill said.

"Daughter, basically." I said.

"Daughter...?" Bill said. "Do you mean..."

"What? No, no! Adopted!" I laughed. "What do you think I am, a pervert?" I chuckled. "No, I mean that Cammy sees me as her dad and that I see her as a daughter... Sounds odd but we really love each other." I said. "Alright, you can check her out of you want." I said as I made Cammy jump Bill's shoulder.

"She's... Strange but a very nice color!" Bill said when Scarlet pricked up her ears. She looked at the grass when two pichu suddenly appeared.

"Ah, here are Kim and Charlie." I said, making them able climb my shoulder. After they reached it I stood up again.

"Where are your parents guys?" I asked.

"Pichu-pi!" Charlie said.

"Pikachu-pika!" Cammy said pointing at the grass. Jack and Rosie came running towards us. Because of the grass was so high you could only see their tails. You couldn't see the pichu at all. Rosie looked quite mad when she appeared from the grass and in the clearing. She jumped Bill's shoulder and looked at Cammy and her pichu.

"Pikachu-pi! Pikachu-pikachu!" she shouted. This made both pichu look guilty.

"I think someone was bad..." Bill chuckled. Rosie looked at Cammy.

"PIKA-PIKAchu!" she said to her.

"Chuuu..." Cammy whined. "Pika-pi!" she said as she pointed at me. Rosie sighed when Jack was standing right next to me.

"Pika-pikachu." he said in general. The pichu and Cammy sighed before Rosie turned her mad glance at me. It disappeared as if it was nothing and she greeted me.

"Don't punish them too hard... I'm sorry..." I said. "I didn't want to scare you... Did they run away?" Rosie nodded.

"Don't run away from mom and dad guys..." I said as I gave them a serious look. Kim gave me a puppy look.

"D'awww... How can you be mad at that..." Bill said.

"Not. But I'm not susceptible for puppy looks anymore." I said. Cammy giggled.

"Pika-pi!" she said before she gave me a puppy look as well. Bill laughed.

"Oh damnit..." I said. "I can't..." I said but I had lost the battle way before it even started.

"Oh you..." I said before gently stroking Cammy on Bill's shoulder. Jack said something to me while shaking his head and Rosie rolled her eyes. And I knew exactly what they meant.

"Wouldn't trick you eh...?" Bill chuckled.

"Alright, who wants something to eat?" I said. Kim, Charlie and Cammy shouted happily before I started walking back towards the laboratory. Bill followed me.

"Scarlet! Are you coming with us?" I asked her. She nodded and quickly followed. She walked along with Jack and Rosie.

"It's funny to see you interacting with them." he said. "I've never seen an entire feral pikachu family obey a human." he said.

"Feral? Jack and Rosie aren't feral. They're just pikachu living outside." I chuckled. Jack turned around and looked at me while standing on two legs. He shook his head like he was saying "you really don't know what you're talking about". I laughed at him.

"What. Did you want to say you're feral?" I chuckled. Jack nodded.

"Pika!" he said firmly.

"Alright, then no food for you." I said.

"Pi... Pikachu...?" he said with a scared undertone in his voice.

"Feral pikachu can find their own food." I said. "Isn't that true, Bill?"

"Oh yes, it certainly is." Bill replied, going along with my trolling.

"Pika... Pikachu-pi...!" he said. You could hear he wasn't happy with that answer.

"I'm just kidding..." I chuckled as he tugged my jeans with panicked eyes and I scooped him off the ground.

"Do you think I would starve you." I chuckled. Jack looked at me like I was crazy. "Of course I wouldn't! And Oak probably would give you food anyway..." I said. Kim and Charlie giggled.

"Pichu pi!" Kim said.

"Pika!" he said happily.

"Pichu! Pi-pi!" she said.

"Pika-pikachu. Pika pikachu!" Jack replied when he returned to Rosie and walked along with her and Scarlet.

"You know, you already have a lot of pika-friends." Bill said. "I already count at least six, and there are probably more."

"Yep, we got Lukas, Lola, their children, some other pikachu from the colony, all the pichu..." I said summing it up.

"I think around fifty pikachu. But they're not really friends, they're more... Family, like colony. You know? Like required friends."

"Anyway, I hope you don't take them all home, because that would be... Too much." Bill chuckled.

"I'm not planning on taking all the pikachu with me." I said. "But I want to take Cammy and Jack and Rosie with me. Mom likes them now, maybe we can take Kim and Charlie too..."

"Probably. You can't separate a pichu from it's mother...!" Bill said.

"Cammy is the exception." I chuckled.

"Oh yeah, I forgot that." he said. "She's orphan..."

"Well she was. Not anymore." I said as we entered the laboratory. Bill held the door open for the pikachu as we entered.

"Ah, the laptop is done!" he said as we entered the examination room.

"Tell me later, I got five hungry pokémon." I said as I got to the food storage and got the pokéchew. As soon the food came out, all pokémon suddenly were my best friends. Cammy had jumped from Bill to me and Rosie and Jack were cuddling my legs. The pichu were just looking at their parents like they were crazy. I filled two feeders which were immediately attacked by three hungry pikachu and the two pichu. Even though the pichu didn't eat that much of the food yet (they still drank milk from Rosie or were fed by me).

I turned to Bill who watched the laptop.

"Very interesting..." he said softly. Oak entered the room.

"I already wondered what that noise was." he said as he saw Cammy, Scarlet, Jack and Rosie eating and the pichu playing with each other.

"I think I got it." Bill said.

"Tell me what's my problem." I chuckled.

"Alright, check this out." he said. I looked on the screen and watched to some graphs.

"These are the responses from your brain when we showed you those pictures." Bill said. I looked at the graphs. Bill had placed the images I had seen into the graph and had put numbers in them."

"I don't know what this means." I said. "What's the point."

"If the graph goes up like this..." he said as he pointed his pen towards the screen "...and when you see a peak, it means you liked a picture. You can see that we showed you a litter bin here. Your response was close to nothing. You didn't like it that much. If you look at Cammy you can see that your response was very high. It even went out of the graph." he chuckled.

"Oh..." I said as I looked at the graph. Some pictures indeed had some nice peaks from things I liked. Cammy, Scarlet, apple and other things.

"But what does this proof?" I asked.

"In theory, nothing. But check this." Bill said. He opened another graph and placed it under my one. He pointed at the screen.

"This is the activity of a part of your brain. As you can see, the activity is very high there. So high in fact, that it isn't normal. But maybe you're having some thoughts, things you're remembering, you know, stuff like that. This part of the brain isn't supposed to be active when we do this test. Not this much, at least." he said, pointing at the screen showing me some peaks. The peaks were exactly at the same places where my 'own' peaks where. Again the highest at Cammy and Scarlet.

"But if you look to this activity and to this graph..." Bill said. He placed a third graph on the screen.

"This is the activity of a awake pikachu." he said as he pointed to the third graph. I looked at the graph and at the second graph, the one from my part of the brain that should not be active. I gasped. The graphs were almost identical, except for the peaks.

"You mean..." I said. "The pokéball... It... Placed a pikachu inside of my... brain?"

"Looks like it." Bill said. "The graph shows us that your pikachu self had major activity when we showed you pictures of things pikachu like, or environment they live in, your activity also peaked. I am quite sure that there is something in there that resembles a pikachu, or something close to that."

It remained silent again. I sat down on a chair and looked at the graphs.

"So basically... I am a pikachu in a human body..." I said. Immediately when I said that, I felt a headache.

"You could say that." Bill said as I grabbed my head. "What's the matter?" he asked.

"Headache. It happens sometimes overday that I suddenly get headache. Nothing to worry about." I said.

"Nothing to worry about?" he said. "Can you remember when you had those headaches?" he asked.

"Hmmm, maybe." I said while I thought back of the last two days. I gave Bill some times from the headaches I could remember.

"Not a single one at nighttime?" he asked when he saw the estimated times.

"No, only in the daytime. Overnight I don't have any pain." I said.

"Morning, noon, evening..." Bill said while he moved his pen past the times rapidly. "Day..." he said as he painted a small table on the paper he had.

"Look at this. What do you think this is?" he asked.

"Uhm..." I said. I saw a table that showed the times of the day from 06:00 to 01:00 in the night. The headaches were all divided over the three days and were painted in the picture. Headaches were black, no pain was white. The black parts went from 07:00 towards 12:00 and from 13:30 to 18:30. The times weren't accurate, but all days were white from 12:30 to 13:00 and from 19:30 and onward. I looked at the picture once more.

"I don't have a clue." I said.

"Think about pikachu." he said. "Think about your colony."

Thinking about the colony I suddenly saw it. This was the average schedule of a pikachu. Active from sunrise to afternoon. Napping after noon and active from about 13:00 towards sunset.

"This... I can't believe this... How could I not see this..." I said, looking at the paper. My headache got worse. I looked at the clock. It was 14:00. The pikachu inside me must have been napping from the test to now. It had awakened now. The medication I had taken had relieved the pain from the headache the past couple of days, but I hadn't taken any medication the last hours and I felt terrible all of a sudden. The pain that I felt back in the forest was back.

"Do you have headache right now?" Bill said.

"Yes, I do." I said. "And it's bad."

"You said that you didn't have any this morning, after you changed into a pikachu. Why do you have it now?" he asked.

"How can I know?!" I said.

"Should I get you some medication?" Oak asked.

"Yes, please." I said. The pain was growing rapidly. The discussion of pikachu-human had triggered it, I was sure of it. My pain grew worse. I thought my head would explode or something, and I had my hand on it to relieve the pain a bit. Bill sat next to me.

"Really, should we get you to a hospital?" he asked concerned.

"No, they'll only ask me questions which I can't answer." I said. "I wait this pikachu-human or whatever it is to be gone...!" I said. "He's only causing me pain..."

"Pikapikachu?" Cammy said. She stood on the table in front of me and looked at me with a worried face. I looked at her and then something happened. When I looked into Cammy's eyes, something inside my head bursted. Like something that had been imprisoned was suddenly released. I screamed softly as I felt a pang shooting through my head and my entire body.

"_Finally free!"_ I thought. Wait, I thought what?

"_Free? How do you mean?"_ I answered in thoughts. But it wasn't me answering.

"_Finally I can move and be free! Finally I can move and be myself. I hate being confined."_ I thought when hundreds and hundreds of random thoughts flooded my brain and everything. It confused me.

"What the heck. Who is talking in my head? Espeon, if this is you, it's not funny!" I thought when I heard the conversation going in inside my head and noticing my own thoughts which weren't mine.

"Stop talking to me!" I said out loud.

"What?" Bill said. But I stood up, hand on my head. The pain was almost completely gone as quick as it came. It was almost over but I was very confused.

"Bill, leave me alone for a second, please." I said. Bill looked at me with a strange look.

"Alright, if you want..." he said. I stood against the wall, looking at all those thoughts which were still flooding me. I heard some conversation going on in the background but I was too focussed on the flood of thoughts to hear it. Suddenly the thoughts stopped and something else happened. I noticed some pikachu smells in the room, I could distinguish Cammy and Scarlet. Then I couldn't. And my hearing went better and worse. My human mind noticed all this.

"_Oh, that's a handsome pikachu!"_ I thought. _"Maybe it wants to mate with me..."_

"_What the heck, who is this!"_ I asked inside my head.

"_Maurice of course, who do you think it would be!"_ something answered while my interest suddenly went to Scarlet. Then there was silence as I looked at her. I forced myself not to watch her and closed my eyes and looked at the wall instead, my eyes still closed.

"_Hey, what are you doing...!"_ it said. Something tried to watch Scarlet again, but it quickly stopped.

"_Enough! I'm in control here."_ it said. _"Humans do not mate with pikachu."_

"_Human? Are you insane or anything? Pikachu! I'm a pikachu!"_

"_No, human. I'm a human."_

"_No, I'm a pikachu."_

"_Human."_

"_Pikachu!"_

"_Human."_

"_PIKACHU!"_

"HEY! Could you both stop arguing and settle down a bit?" I though, this time for real. The conversation in my head was surely interesting but also scary.

"What the hell, what is happening." I thought.

"_This nitwit is trying to mate with Scarlet."_ something said.

"_That little spark is trying to blow your chances of ever getting a mate."_ something else said.

"What is he doing?" I heard. I looked under my arm and saw it was Cammy that said this. I could understand pikachu!

"_Maurice, just think you're a human. You are confused right now."_ the first voice said. I imagined I was a human and everything seemed to be much more... Solid. Like my confusion was gone all of a sudden.

"_There."_ the voice said.

"_Who or what are you?"_ I thought.

"_I am you. I don't know what happened, but what I do know is that you currently have two minds and that there is one speaking towards you right now. I am the original Maurice, or in other words, I'm your thoughts you had before. If you think you're human, you will be me and I will be you. Like everything was before that pokéball incident. Ever since then I was split from you. I am still here and I can still give you thoughts but now this other mind escaped from that part of your brain I locked it in you were so confused. Once or twice you gave it complete control of yourself. It made me completely useless. You were acting and behaving like one of him. I could see what you did but I could never interfere with you. Now, it escaped. It was a matter of time and I tried to warn you, but I couldn't."_

"_But what is that other part...?"_ I asked.

"_I don't know, but since you behaved as a pikachu, I think we both know - or rather, me, or you, whatever - what it is. It is a pikachu mind that has been..."_ I thought. _"That has been placed inside of you somehow. I don't know how and I don't know why. Ask Bill."_

"_But... Does this mean I am a pikachu?"_ I asked.

"_Look at yourself. You are a human. But if you think as a pikachu, your pikachu-self will probably take control of your body. You could try it."_ it suggested.

"_Alright..."_ I thought._ "Pikachu, come here..."_

Suddenly it was like my double minded battle from before happened again. The pikachu mind like stormed my thoughts with all kinds of questions and interesting stuff to explore. I tried to separate the thoughts from the pikachu mind and the human mind. I made sure I kept human.

"_So, what are you?"_ I asked. I noticed it was my old self talking again.

"_I'm a pikachu."_ it said. _"Why?" _

"_Oh great..."_ I said when I smiled and got up and almost lost balance.

"_HUMAN."_ I thought. I regained balance immediately and the pikachu thoughts were gone.

"Maurice, what the hell were you doing." Oak asked.

"Yes, I'm wondering what you were doing. You were talking some strange things back there." Bill said.

"You'll never guess what just happened..." I said before I sat down in front of them and started to tell them everything.

* * *

><p><em>Thanks for reading again, and please review!<em>


	25. The 'special' pikachu

"Incredible."

"How is this possible..."

"You've asked that over a hundred times now."

"I know, but I'm still confused."

I was holding a ruler inside my left hand. Bill was standing before me while he stared at it.

"Your response time was 0,05 seconds. ZERO POINT ZERO FIVE. THAT'S INHUMANE." he exclaimed. I just chuckled. I had just tried a simple response test. The one with a ruler everyone does in school. One holds the ruler while the other has to catch it as soon it is dropped. Depending on the position you grab it you could determine your response speed.

"It doesn't surprise me." Oak chuckled. "Ever since he could see that number from that distance I already took into account that he's a pikachu."

Three days had passed. I had been training my pikachu skill in the past days and things went very smooth. The confusion I had felt when the pikachu had escaped from my mind (if you'd like to call it like that) was gone after a good night of sleep. I could allow the pikachu inside of me whenever I liked. I could understand Cammy, Scarlet, Jack and Rosie perfectly. They could understand me too. It was really good to be able to talk to them again. The only problem was that I had to change into a pikachu to be able to talk to them. Although I had control, I had to be either pikachu or human. If I was pikachu, I still had control over myself with my human mind, although sometimes my pikachu self slipped through and I changed into pikachu temporarily. My pikachu side was much stronger when I allowed it inside of me. On the other side, when I was human, sometimes my pikachu side would break in when I was doing something. Like when something with a very strong attraction to it came by or when something happened what scared it. Sometimes it would try to take over and either do something or flee.

I had paid the colony a visit to tell that I wasn't exactly sick but that I would explain him the situation when I came back. Lukas has happy I was back for a moment. Espeon was also in the colony when I was visiting. The telepathic pokémon was surprised that I could talk to pikachu again. After I explained her what had happened to me and what exactly was the case, she just chuckled.

"Told you when we first met, remember? Be careful with what you wish, it might come true." she chuckled.

"True, but to be honest, now I can control it a bit, I'm really happy it happened. I mean, I'm able to understand you guys, I'm able to smell like you... I now can translate pikachu to human in real time." I chuckled.

"That's true." she said. "So, how does it work? Can you... Well... Change into a pikachu just like that?"

"Yep. It's purely some mind thing. That pokéball did something to me what isn't supposed to happen, but because I was with the pikachu colony for so long, it mistook me for a real one. The end of the story is that I can change into a pikachu at any time I like. It doesn't work out that well sometimes because it takes over control but the last three days I have learned how to control it a bit. I think it'll take some months for me to completely get control of it..." I said.

"So, then you're a pikachu?" she asked.

"A pikachu in a human body, basically." I had replied while I stroked Zack and Julie, which were in my lap. The other pichu were playing and Lukas was gone out of the colony, fixing some stuff with a couple of beedrill after we had a small word. Better he than me, I hated beedrill. I was stuck by a small one when I was little and I was afraid of them ever since. It was Bobby who chased it away back then.

For a couple of days after the small visit, I did tests with Oak and Bill and to get used to my pika-side. It was a really strange happening, but it was very cool. I had better eyesight when I was pikachu. I could see much more and much more detail. My night-vision also improved. When a human couldn't see anything, I could. Bill was surprised, because the human eye wasn't supposed to be able to see anything in certain situations, but even then I could see. Bill was sure it was the same as pikachu-vision, although he still couldn't believe it.

The same went for smell. I could identify all kinds of smells which I never could as a human. I could smell the difference between male and female pikachu, for example. Every pikachu I knew had his own smell which I could use to identify them. To make it even better, it was much easier to identify pikachu by smell than by 'normal' human vision. I even caught myself that I was using smell to identify humans as well instead of vision. It was just so much easier. Now I understood why Rosie told me she wouldn't name her children. The best of all was that I didn't need to learn anything because I already knew how to do things because my pikachu mind knew. I didn't have to learn anything because it was present within my pikachu mind. It was like multi-taking on the computer. The pikachu part did the pikachu things and the human part made sure everything went smooth and took on the human things.

And if that wasn't enough, my hearing had also improved. I could now hear the same things as a pikachu could when I allowed it inside my mind or when I was one. Not only high ultrasone sounds that humans could not hear, but also things that were very far away. I had noticed the thunderstorm that was coming our way long before it even started.

"There's a thunderstorm coming..." I had noticed to Bill when I had asked him for silence and had listened for a second. A sort of grumble in the far, far distance. Even though I wasn't sure, I just knew it must be a thunderstorm.

"It's great weather, what are you talking about." Bill had laughed. His face was priceless when we were watching the rain fall and hear the thunder going around the laboratory about three hours later. Being a pikachu had its advantages...

The point was, I could change at any time I wanted. As a pikachu I could understand pikachu and humans, the problem was that I couldn't talk in human language if I allowed the pikachu inside of me. So I had to change back and forth whenever I was with pikachu and human. That was pretty confusing but I got used to it quickly.

Another fun thing about the pikachu mind was that I could allow it inside of me just partly. When I did that (and that wasn't easy, at least, not yet) I could get into that mindgap I was in earlier. By doing this I could make both of my minds communicate normally like they were having a conversation. I could ask both of them what they would think of a certain situation. It was really funny to see the answers of the pikachu. The pikachu wasn't that smart, but more like simple. Like a young child. It would always come up with simple solutions that, most of the cases, made the problem I was giving it only worse. The pikachu mind also couldn't understand effects of certain actions. Like getting human food would make the humans mad because I wouldn't pay for it. The pikachu didn't understand that, it didn't understand that you should pay for it, it just ate. Even explaining it wouldn't help. That sort of things made it very funny to work with. Luckily for me my human side could always interfere with the pikachu mind when something was about to go seriously wrong.

On the other side I had a perfect view of the manner pikachu think. I understood Cammy and Scarlet much better now and I understood the way they came up with things. Also, names that the pikachu made up for certain things was hilarious for me. The sun was called 'big ball of light' and the outlets were called 'infinite power sources'. It made me laugh every time.

But there was also a big disadvantage. The pikachu mind was constantly trying to find my energy sources. It was trying to get the energy that normally flows through a pikachu, but as you may understand wasn't present inside me. That bugged the pikachu. It wanted to release energy every now and then, which wouldn't work as well. This made the pikachu really annoyed sometimes, so badly it even affected my mood. But I usually could calm it down. Over the days, the pikachu seemed to give up on it because there never was a response of an energy source or energy channel at my cheeks or inside my body. Of course there wasn't, I was a human.

After I went back to the colony things were completely different. Not for the pikachu, but for me. The pikachu were so used to me that they didn't even notice my different behaviour. I now could track other pikachu, I could exactly see how a pikachu would respond in a certain situation. My mind got better and better at letting the pikachu 'loose' inside me. Like controlling a robot. I could give the pikachu complete control and revoke it at any time. Strong emotions were quite difficult, but the rest was easy. When I was with the pikachu on a normal day, I usually was in pikachu-mode to learn as much stuff as I could. I tried to adapt myself to them as much as I could.

So a day came that I was in the forest with the 'old' pichu. The young pichu were napping and I took the more experienced pichu out of the colony together with the young pikachu. They still loved to be with me and to play and cuddle with me and with the older pichu. Most of these pichu were close to evolving. Some of them liked to train with me, probably because I had the knowledge how to train faster and stronger. I had been a trainer, after all. It was really fun to see them developing so quick. The pichu learned how to control their electricity, which was, even though they were experienced, still a problem every now and then. The young pikachu trained very hard, and in special the ones that wanted to become guarding pikachu. Since they had seen the battle with the ekans and arbok months ago a lot of the pichu from when I joined the colony wanted to become guards. Mostly males though and no females. But that wasn't a big problem. They trained like their lives depended on it. The young pikachu even became so good that they could join the 'adult' pikachu on their daily routines. Checking for unwanted pokémon within range of the colony, like beedril, ratata nests, or anything like that. As long I was with them to guide them the real guards wouldn't mind, but even then they would cause some trouble every now and then.

But today was a sunny day and we were just done training. The pichu, pikachu and me were chilling in the sun. I was sitting against a tree with a couple of the pokemon on my lap, when I suddenly picked up a sound. Since my hearing was way better than an average human, I could hear the faintest sign of danger. Immediately my ears started scanning for more sounds. As soon I heard more, I opened my eyes and looked in the direction of the sound. A human was coming this way, a female human. No doubt about that. My nose told me so. That I didn't smell her earlier... I blame the flowers around here. The pikachu also noticed that there was something coming and they looked at me. The pichu also looked at me. One nod and glance made them hide themselves as quick as possible. That's why I love this generation, they know exactly what I mean when I tell them to do something. I looked at the direction of the sound once more before I hid myself next to two pichu in a bush. They smiled at me. Even though I was much and much bigger than the pichu, I wasn't visible at all from nearby. Let alone from far away. The pikachu inside me automatically chose the right spots to hide. Luckily for me it was now used to my size so I always had a good spot to hide. I leaned over the pichu and placed my arms around them so my body was protecting them. Then I got low to prevent being seen.

Everyone looked in the direction of the sound. It got louder and louder. We were here for almost three minutes (imagine how quick I noticed the human coming) before we saw something. The pichu looked at me. A woman was coming our direction. I couldn't see her just yet, she was still in the shade. It would be a matter of time before she would reach our clearing. She walked into the sunlight and I could see her face. It was... my mother! She was walking furiously towards us and walked right past us. I had never smelled my mothers scent. Now I knew her scent, I could always identify her. To protect the pikachu and pichu, I remained quiet. Mom walked right past me, about a meter or so away from me without seeing me and headed straight for the colony. The pikachu and the pichu looked at me.

"Boy, I'm in trouble..." I whispered. "She looked mad." Some pikachu giggled and they gathered back at me.

"Everyone here?" I asked. "Alright let's go back then. I wonder what she wants."

I heard a scream from nearby. Immediately my ears perked up, as well as the ears from the pikachu and pichu around me.

"They found her... Or rather... She found them..." I chuckled before we headed back to the colony. I could hear my mother screaming every now and then, which made me run a bit faster with the pichu and pikachu in my wake.

"What are you doing...? I just want to pet them...!" I heard. Oh please, please don't be that stupid. Don't try to pet the pichu in a wild pikachu colony that doesn't know you. Please don't. Please... Don't...

I sighed when I entered the colony. My mom was surrounded by pikachu which were sparking their cheeks at her and growling.

"What are you doing?!" she said to the pikachu.

"They're trying to get rid of an intruder." I said while I walked towards her.

"Maurice!" she said when she turned around and saw my coming towards her with some pikachu and a pichu on my shoulder. The pikachu stopped and looked at my mother. What was another human doing here?

"What are you doing there?" I asked. "And I hope you don't want to touch the pichu. Could be the last thing you do." I chuckled.

"The last thing... What are you talking about? I just want to pet them!" she said.

"I know, but they don't." I said as I nodded towards the pikachu, who were still sparking, but less intense than before."

"_She's OK, you can let her go. She isn't dangerous."_ I spoke towards the pikachu in pika-language. They looked at me and then broke the circle and allowed my mom to walk towards me.

"What... What did you tell them?" she asked a bit perplexed.

"I told them that you aren't dangerous." I chuckled when Lukas came running up to me.

"_What's happening? I heard that there was some stranger. And why is your mom here?"_ he asked when he stood next to me.

"_His mom?"_ a pikachu said.

"_Is that your mother?"_ another said.

"_Holy crap..."_

"_She's dumb..."_

"_HEY, do not insult my mother."_ I chuckled in pikachu language.

"_Like she didn't know that we would attack her if she would go to the pichu..."_ a male said before he walked away, grinning. I rolled my eyes.

"What are you talking about...?" my mother said.

"About you. How could you walk in here just like that? You should know that you're kind of invading their territory. You could know that you would get attacked if you would come here and especially when you get close to the pichu." I said while I nodded at the pichu on my shoulder.

"Well I thought you were here so I walked into this place." she said.

"You walked right past me in that big clearing, I was hidden." I chuckled.

"What?! You saw me and you didn't say anything?!" she said indignantly.

"Of course. I couldn't know who was coming and with pichu with me I don't want to take any risk." I said as I scratched the pichu on my shoulder. "I can't risk some idiot passing by by accident catching one of these." I said.

"Well... That... Whatever, you need to come home!" she said, suddenly her tone a lot more serious and angry. "Oak told me what happened and I don't want you to be here any second longer. You could turn into a pikachu and I don't want this to escalate any further! I want you to become a human adult boy and I don't want you to stay in this retard forest! You need to learn a job! You need to earn your own money! I want you to come home and think about that! This has taken long enough now and..."

My mom kept going on about all kinds of stuff. But I couldn't concentrate on it anymore. My pikachu side (which I had switched to as soon I was done talking, I could understand humans as a pikachu) wasn't interested anymore. So I was gonna do other stuff. I sat down and grabbed one of the young pikachu. This one had some trouble with it's right leg and I checked it multiple times a day to make sure it wouldn't get worse.

"Hey, are you listening?!" my mom said while I sat down.

"Not really..." I said as I checked the pikachu. The pikachu was used to me checking him since I already did it quite a lot of times so it sat perfectly still and purred softly when I finished my inspection and scratched him on his belly. My mom was standing next to me and checking what I was doing.

"_Looks good."_ I said in pikachu. _"Just a short time and you'll be able to fully use it again!"_

"_Cool! Can I try agility then?"_ he said.

"_Yep, I wonder if you'll master it as quick as your friends."_ I said as I looked towards some other pikachu.

"_Cool!" _he said as he hugged my belly and then left.

"That's cute..." my mom said softly as she watched me. "But never ignore me like that again." she said firmly.

"Did you hear me? I want you to come with me right now." she said.

"But... Mom, I'm feeling perfectly fine!" I said.

"Probably. But I'm worried sick and I want you to get home. I'm not very happy that you got turned into a pikachu partly, let alone that I want you to become one completely." she said.

"But the pikachu side is so useful! I can talk to them, I can smell and hear like them, I can even see much better if I'm pretending I am one." I said.

"Pretending you are a pikachu...?" she asked.

"Yes, I can allow a pikachu inside of me and then I possess the abilities of a pikachu." I said.

"That sounds like bullshit." she said.

"Really...?" I said. "What should I do to proof it?" I chuckled.

"Nothing, because it's not true. I won't believe it." she said.

"So you do believe Oak but not me." I said.

"I don't believe Oak either but I think you're LOSING YOUR MIND!" she shouted. "I don't want you to become more... Feral! I don't want you to become a pikachu. I want you to come home with me."

"Mom, don't worry. I'm still Maurice, except that I'm a bit wild. But as soon I life at home that'll change again, I promise." I said.

"Yeah sure, and I'll probably have to re-educate you." she said as she looked angry.

"No, you won't have to. I'm used to living here. It's safe! I'll..." I said when I suddenly saw a Fearow diving into the colony. It came straight for me and my mother couldn't see it. I heard some screams before I pulled my mom out of the way.

"DIVE!" I shouted as we both dove for cover. The Fearow flew right over our heads. I watched him flying over to the pichu playground. I immediately understood that one of these unfortunate pokémon was meant to be lunch. Then something strange happened. I don't know if it was myself giving orders, or if it was my pikachu side telling me to do it, but I launched from the ground using both my arms and legs at the same time. I quickly ran towards the playground. The Fearow slowed down to attempt to grab one of the pichu. Different electric attacks came from different directions, but the Fearow ignored them even though he was hit. He must be an high level or just used to this kind of stuff. He landed, quickly picked a pichu with his beak and took off again, dodging a pikachu doing Iron Tail and a electro ball. He tried to fly higher quickly, but before he could get high enough I had grabbed one of his paws. He still tried to take off and to my surprise he managed to take off with both me and the pichu. I quickly tried to climb up, but the Fearow was heavily trying to get rid of me.

"_THUNDERSHOCK!"_ I shouted to the ground, hoping that one of the pikachu would actually shock me while I was slowing the escape of the predator. One or two seconds later I was hit by a strong thundershock from Lukas, who apparently came running behind me and now obeyed my order to attack the bird. The Fearow shouted his name loudly before he got hit by another thundershock, and another, and another. He was now paralyzed and about five meters above the ground he stopped flying. I looked down and realised that I was falling down. Just before I hit the ground I did something with my arms and legs and I landed safely on both before I returned to my human state. Before I realised what happened my pikachu side took over control again. It wanted me to get to the pichu. I immediately looked around and I saw the little rodent close to the Fearow. I grabbed it and held it close to me while some pikachu also joined me.

The pichu seemed alright, the Fearow had broken it's fall so it didn't land to hard on the ground. Then I regained control of myself, but my pikachu side wasn't done yet. It sent out a massive impulse to my brain, trying to gain control again and yet again it succeeded. My human mind like shrugged and let the pikachu do what it wanted to do. I licked the head of the pichu. The pichu was close to crying, and I had to do something about that. I quickly grabbed the little rodent and placed it against my chest and started to lick its head. This was another thing that was new: I did things pikachu do with much more ease. Licking other pikachu as affection was something I liked to receive from Cammy, for example. But now my pikachu half was in control, I did it myself too. My human mind freaked out the first times but licking wasn't dirty at all. I even liked it after a couple of days.

The pichu softly whimpered but quickly nested itself against me. I licked it a couple of times before I cuddled it close to my face. It cooed happily when I finally got back to human state and continued the cuddling for a while before I gave the pichu to one of the pikachu. She quickly grabbed the scruff of the baby-pokémon and headed inside the colony.

"Told you it was safe." I said to my mom while she stood next to me shaking her head as I fell backwards on my back. But there wasn't a long time to rest, there was a Fearow in the colony and that had to be removed as soon as possible. I stood up and looked at the Fearow. It was the one that was with the colony for quite a while now. It was lurking for pichu or even pikachu for quite long already. And even though Lukas and me tried to chase him away multiple times by thundershocking his nest (we knew where he lived) he wouldn't go away. But now the Fearow was here, we could safely remove the nest. The Fearow started to move again.

"What are you gonna do with him?" my mom asked.

"We would like to kill him... But we probably can't." I said. "Lukas, quickly!" I said as the Fearow was waking up.

"Take a step back..." I said when Lukas sparked his cheeks. He kept sparking and sparking before you could see the static electricity building up. His fur was standing straight and he was looking like one big ball of fur now. Then he touched the Fearow. The Fearow immediately dropped to the floor and remained motionless.

"Did you just kill him...?" my mom asked kind of shocked.

"No, we just paralyzed him again, so he can't move." I said when I grabbed the Fearow and started dragging him out of the colony, followed by some pikachu. After we dragged the Fearow to a clearing away from the colony we left it there. It would wake up pretty soon and it would manage itself. We now had to remove it's nest quickly.

"Alright, come on Lukas..." I said. Lukas nodded and we both ran back to the colony.

"We'll be right back!" I said to my mother. "We need to remove that nest."

"I'm going with you!" she said. "I don't want you to get hurt."

"You won't be able to keep up with me." I said. "We need to get to the Fearow's nest as soon as possible now."

"Then go, I'll keep up." she said.

"You won't, but alright." I said as I rolled my eyes. Lukas and I quickly moved towards the edge of the colony and we got inside the forest. As soon the vegetation got rougher we lost my mom. A short trip later we found the tree where the Fearow nested. It was quite a high tree, but that didn't scare me or Lukas at all. Lukas climbed the tree first and he made it to the top pretty quick. A minute or what later I also had reached the top and we started to destroy the nest. There were no eggs or anything so there was no harm in destroying it. We threw the next into random directions. Usually I would ask Lukas to light it on fire with a good and strong thundershock, but with the danger of causing a forest fire we just destroyed it by hand. After two minutes or so I heard my mom under me.

"How can you move so fast here... Unbelievable..." she mentioned while she gasped for air. She had noticed the falling parts of nest. She then looked up to see me standing high up in the sky, on a thick branch.

"MAURICE, GET DOWN HERE! YOU'LL FALL DOWN!" she shouted.

"Great, overprotective mother time." I said to Lukas. Lukas looked at me and rolled his eyes. He knew I could climb pretty well, I wouldn't fall down just like that.

"I'm fine mom, give me one second..." I shouted back as the last part of the next dropped down entirely.

"Job's done!" I said. Lukas smiled and jumped towards a branch next to my head.

"_I hope she goes home quickly... She isn't suitable for living here..."_ he smiled.

"_Heh heh, I hope the same. I like to see her again, but the only thing she does it worry about me."_ I said as we climbed back down, well climbing, it was more a sort of jumping and grabbing random branches and trees so you wouldn't fall.

"Don't do so dangerous...! Don't fall!" I heard from beneath. Lukas and I looked at each other and we both pulled a face before we bursted out in laughing. I hung from the last branch and jumped the last meter. I landed safely on the ground and I felt Lukas' paws and feet as he jumped on my head.

"Pika!" he said happily. My mom wasn't amused.

"Never do such dangerous things again!" she said as she grabbed her chest on the place where her heart was.

"No mom, I won't..." I said, knowing that it was clear that this was a lie.

"I think I'm heading home now... I've seen enough. When are you coming home?" she asked. "I wanted to see how you were doing and apparently you're doing good. But I want you to come home." she said.

"I'll come home before the next winter. That's a promise." I said. My mom thought a second about that, and then sighed.

"That's ok. I wish you would come earlier, but the summer is ideal to be here I guess." she said. I looked at Lukas.

"I'm hungry..." I said. "Let's get the pichu and get something to eat."

Lukas nodded happily and the three of us made our way back to the colony. I immediately walked over to the playground. The younger pichu were awake now and playing.

"Who's hungry?" I asked the pichu. About half of the pichu raised their paw and shouted "meeeee!" before they came closer to me and Lukas.

"What do they say?" my mom asked.

"Rough translation: We're hungry." I chuckled.

"They're kind of cute..." mom said as she sat on her knees and pet one of the pichu that was confident enough to get close to her. I sat next to her and also pet one of the pichu. This triggered the rest of them to come close to us.

"Why did Jack and Rosie want to get away from you? Oak said they didn't want to stay anymore." I asked.

"Oh, they just wanted to be outside for awhile, I guess." she replied. "It took awhile to figure out what they wanted, but they wanted to get away, so Oak picked them up and now they're fine."

"I think they wanted the pichu to experience the outside. Not the garden, but the real outside." I said. "Probably instinct related."

"Alright, I'm also getting food. See you later honey." she said as she hugged me and kissed me.

"Mooom, don't kiss me in front of everyone...!" I said as I saw the pichu giggle.

"They're too small to understand that." she said. "Take care and don't forget to put on clean underwe..."

"Alright alright, I will!" I said as I broke the hug and turned her around and pushing her toward the trees.

"Alright, bye bye sweety...!" she said as she waved from the trees. We watched her go when I looked down. The pichu looked at me and Lukas' face was about to explode, or so it looked. From laughter.

"I think I just lost some leadership points..." I said as I turned around. "Let's get something to eat!" The pichu followed me and some pikachu followed me too. Lukas followed too but I could see he had quite a lot of fun. I facepalmed. I probably had to hear this all week now.

The rest of the spring went very well. The new pichu were quick learners and the older pichu helped me very well with learning them everything they needed to know. It was also very dry for the time of year. There wasn't much rain which meant that I always slept without getting wet at night, but at the same time the grass in the colony was dieing. It had turned more brown than green... That wasn't very good... I guess.

It was a nice and sunny day when me and Lukas were eating in the center of the colony when my phone rang. I didn't notice it at first, because it probably was the first time that Oak called me instead of the other way around. I got the phone out of my pocket and watched the screen.

"'Incomming call from Samuel Oak." I said, repeating what the device was telling me. Lukas looked interested.

"Why is the thing making noise?" Lukas asked.

"Because Oak is calling me." I said. "Let's see what he wants from me." I said as I slid the green phone to the side to answer the call. I immediately put on the speaker so Lukas could hear what Oak was telling me.

"Hi Oak!" I said.

"Maurice? Please don't talk, I don't have much time." he said. His voice wasn't his normal voice, instead, it was unclear and out of breath. Oak was pretty nervous, you could clearly hear that.

"What is it?" I said, wondering what was happening.

"It's Cammy! Listen, I think you should come!" he said almost like in panic.

"But what's the matter?" I asked. I heard some noise on the background of the caller.

"Oak, what's the matter?" I asked again.

"SSSSHHHH." he said. I shut my mouth, but I didn't know why.

"Look, I can't talk too much but..." he said before he was interrupted.

"HEY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!" I heard someone shouting at the background. At the same time, I heard some pika-shouting I couldn't understand because I was currently in human-mode.

"Hey! Let me... Uhg!" I heard.

"Oak?! OAK!" I shouted. "Beep beep beep beep beep beep."

"Shit, he hung up..." I said.

"Pika-pi?" Lukas said.

"Yes?" I replied while quickly changing to pikachu.

"What was that? It was scary!" Lukas said.

"I don't know-" I said while I got up "-but he said that there was something with Cammy. Come on, we go there right now!" Lukas nodded. We gave Volt temporally leadership over the colony (something the pikachu didn't like but obeyed) and then quickly ran towards the laboratory of Oak.

All kinds of thoughts went through me. I could hear multiple people through the phone and the fact that it looked like someone was hurting Oak didn't really sound very good. We quickly ran through the woods and we came on the road to the laboratory.

"Lukas, wait!" I said as we were close to the laboratory, just before it would come into view.

"Let's stay hidden, I don't want to be seen before I know what is happening here." I said. Lukas nodded and we went closer to the laboratory through the vegetation, trying to find what had caused this phone call, but everything remained silent as usual. It was never busy at Oak's laboratory, people were usually inside. We sat still and looked around.

"_Do you smell that?" _Lukas said as he smelled the ground.

"_Yes, I do now."_ I said. There was a strange smell on the path, one that I didn't know. It didn't smell like a human, but at the same time it did.

"_What is that?" _I asked Lukas.

"_I don't know..."_ he said.

"_Let's be careful."_ I said. We got out of our hiding spot and headed for the door. I pushed against the door and it opened. That was strange, since Oak always closed it. Someone had to open it from the inside or have a keycard or key. I felt nervous. I could sense something, but I didn't know what. I was as alert as possible. I braced myself into my pikachu self so I could respond as quick as possible. Faster than an average human, at least. We entered the laboratory. We walked across the corridor. There was an opening at the right, the opening to Oak's lab. The glass door where Lukas had slammed into on his first visit was also opened. We walked towards it and looked inside the laboratory. My heart stopped. On the table stood Cammy. But around Cammy was a small metal cage. Cammy was sitting in the cage and didn't look too happy.

"Cammy!" I said while I and Lukas entered the room.

"Maurice!" Cammy said as she had tears in her eyes. She tried to break free but failed. I immediately knew that there was something wrong here, Oak would never ever lock a pokémon away in such a cage unless he had to move them by car. But this wasn't a cage for pokémon travel. It was made of metal with strong bars, preventing any form of escape. I tried to free Cammy, but it didn't work.

"Piiii...kaaa..." I heard. It sounded like a wounded pikachu.

"Lukas, Iron Tail that cage." I said. "Cammy, brace yourself..." I walked to the side of the table to see where that sound was coming from. I gasped - On the ground behind the table was Scarlet. She whined softly and I could see some blood next to her. I sat next to her immediately and almost jumped when Lukas attacked Cammy's cage, which didn't work.

"Damn..." I said as I turned my attention towards Scarlet. She was wounded, but she wasn't badly hurt, fortunately. It looked much worse than it was.

"Who did this to you?!" I asked Scarlet. Scarlet opened her eyes and closed them again in pain. She must be having more pain than I thought. I gently scooped her from the ground and held her against me when I heard footsteps. They were coming this way. Not soon after at least three people entered the room.

"Ah, about time you showed up." one female person said.

"HEY, WE GOT HIM!" a other male shouted. Another male stepped forward.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?!" I said while they came closer and stood along the table. Lukas had walked back over to me and was standing with his tail high up and sparking cheeks. If I was a pikachu, I would be doing exactly the same. I looked at the three humans with an angry face. I suddenly noticed a small 'R' on their clothing. I also noticed that their clothes had that strange smell from outside.

"We are coming for this rare pokémon." she said while looking to Cammy. "I think you already know who we are. We've read some interesting things about you, Maurice." she said as she got my file from the table. The file that was stolen earlier.

"One of our people noticed that you are in a pikachu colony and that you are able to talk pikachu language. Is that true?" she asked.

"Where is Oak?" I asked while more grunts entered the room. "And why is Scarlet wounded?"

"Oak is taking a small nap, but that's the least of your problems." she said. "You are coming with us."

"I'm not." I said. "I'm staying right here with Cammy, Lukas and Scarlet!"

"I was afraid that you would say that. Scarlet tried to resist and you see how it ended. You can turn yourself in now and no one will be harmed." she said.

I looked at Lukas. Lukas looked back at me and nodded.

"I don't think so!" I said while Lukas sparked his cheeks dangerously. Scarlet also sparked weakly but then closed her eyes again. I looked down and placed her in a more comfortable position.

"Your choice." she said as both males pulled out a pokéball and released their pokémon. A zubat and a koffing appeared. Lukas took a small step back and growled.

"Come on Lukas, you can do this! Remember our training!" I said.

"Pika!" Lukas said.

"Alright then, start with thundershock!" I said. Lukas immediately released a thunderstock towards both pokémon at once. They both took the hit and didn't appear very damaged.

"Is that all..." one of the Team Rocket males said. "Zubat, supersonic!" Zubat released his attack as an high pitched sound entered my ears. Lukas put his paws over his ears and placed his head against the ground to make the sound go away. And I did the same, because the attack actually affected me. Scarlet also screamed softly. I changed to human quickly before the feeling got very bad. As a human I could hear a faint high pitched screeching sound, but I couldn't hear it entirely. However, Lukas had trouble. He was confused by the sound.

"Koffing, tackle!" I heard.

"Lukas, evade and counter with Iron Tail!" I said. But Lukas didn't respond. He was a bit wobbly. The koffing came closer rapidly.

"LUKAS, IRON TAIL!" I shouted. This time he listened. He missed the koffing completely but at least he dodged it.

"Good job! Now do agility!" I said. Lukas used his speed to attack the koffing. He hit the koffing in the back and the koffing fell to the ground but got back up.

"Not bad..." the female said. "But don't think we're done. Guys, give him the finishing blow." Both males nodded.

"Koffing, smoke screen!" one said. A thick smoke filled the room and I couldn't even see Lukas anymore.

"Zubat, confuse ray!" I heard.

"Lukas, keep moving!" I shouted. I didn't know what was happening.

"Zubat, wing attack!" I heard.

"Lukas, dodge it!" I said, knowing that it wasn't easy to dodge when you couldn't see. I hoped Lukas would use his other senses to know where the Zubat was.

"Do it again!" I heard.

"Koffing, tackle!" I heard. I heard a pikachu screaming. Lukas was hit by at least one attack.

"One more wing attack should do it." I heard from the other side. The smoke started to clear as I heard the last attack hit Lukas. When the smoke cleared, Lukas was on the ground. He was beaten and he was moving faintly. I quickly moved closer and picked him up and placed him next to Scarlet.

"Jerks..." I said.

"As I said, you're coming with us." the female said. They came closer to me. I stepped back. I looked at Cammy. Cammy looked scared and she had her paws around the bars of her cage. She wanted to get to me, but she couldn't. I took a couple of steps back from the grunts, but I stood against the wall.

"Take him." the female said as she turned around. More grunts came and grabbed me. They removed Scarlet and Lukas.

"What should we do with them?" the male grunt asked.

"Oh, we don't need them." the female said. "Just get rid of them."

"If you kill them..." I said.

"I wasn't talking about killing." the female said as she nodded her head. The males threw Scarlet and Lukas aside. Scarlet landed on the supercomputer, rolled across the keyboard before she fell off and disappeared in the gap between the desk and the computer. I could hear a faint scream as she hit the ground. Lukas landed on the ground hard and growled. He growled again and rolled on his belly softly. The grunts grabbed me and dragged me out of the room. Of course I wasn't really cooperating, and after a while they gave up. They also took Cammy with them.

"MAURICE!" she shouted.

"CAMMY!" I shouted back as she disappeared out of sight. I still wasn't willing to cooperate and the Rocket Grunts were fed up with it. They sat me on the ground and forced me to sit down. Then they held some kind of cloth against my face. As soon I smelled it my head felt dizzy and within seconds, I fainted.

"Finally we can take him." one of the grunts said.

"Don't hurt him. We need him." the female grunt, the leader, said.

"We won't, boss." one of the grunt said before they dragged the boy towards a car that was waiting outside. Lukas saw his best friend getting kidnapped and there was nothing he could do. His body was hurt all over. Scarlet didn't notice anything, she had fainted and was under the desk and supercomputer, fainted.

"Pika-Pi..." Cammy softly whispered while she saw 'her daddy' being carried into a car. Then, someone took her cage and lifted her into another car. The doors closed and the cars drove off to an hidden destination...


	26. Lost and found

_Hey everyone, _

_I forgot to add something to the top of the last story, so I'll make this extra long. Kidding. Enjoy the new part, please review, I would like to know what you think about it! The story took a dramatic turn, but... Well you'll see. :)_

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><p>I felt faint. I don't know how long I was gone. How long I wasn't aware of anything. I opened my eyes so see some iron bars. I was looking upwards towards the ceiling of the cage I was in. It was quite big. I could stand in it, but I didn't have much room. It was probably three by one point five meters, and I wasn't the only one in here. The cage was crowded with pikachu from all ages and from all sizes. There must be at least thirty of them in here. In my cage were only males though, the females were in a cage next to the one I was in. There were lesser females, about twenty. I looked around to see all the pikachu. They were walking all across the cage. Some were lying on the cold floor taking naps, and some were standing in front of the bars to see if they could possibly escape.<p>

The distance between the bars was quite big, a pikachu could easily fit through. Unfortunately, Team Rocket had mounted gauze around the cage which was pika-proof. I noticed I was lying on the floor and on my back, taking a huge amount of floorspace.

"Pika-pikachu..." I heard around me.

"Pika?"

"Pika-piiii."

I grabbed my head and felt a bad headache. Not from my pikachu side, but just in general. I didn't know what they used to make me faint, but it sure wasn't good, bloody hell. I sat straight up and shook my head. The pain lifted a bit as soon I started moving. The pikachu looked at me, even the females. They were wondering what this human was doing inside their cage, which was quite small already and couldn't fit more pikachu, let alone an extra human. I smiled vaguely at the yellow rodents before I sat against the wall and sighed.

I was captured and Arceus knows what they're gonna do with me. They also have Cammy and...

"Cammy." I whispered. I stood up and looked through the room. I saw multiple cages holding pokémon. There were some pikachu in different, smaller cages on the opposite of the room. Some of them held two pikachu, others held one. There was some food in the smaller cages which the pikachu could eat, they also had water. I looked around and noticed that there wasn't any water in our cages, and no food either. I turned around and sat down again (carefully, because I didn't want to squeeze a pikachu) and I looked at one of the pikachu.

"What is this place?" I asked in pikachu language. Over half of the pikachu gasped. A male in front of me responded.

"Can you speak our language?" he said.

"Yes... I can speak pikachu." I said.

"But... How?" he asked.

"That's a long story..." I sighed as I hung my ears (at least, my pikachu side wanted to do this but my human ears couldn't hang much). "I can't really explain it. You probably won't understand anyway..."

The pikachu looked at me with his head turned a bit, but then accepted the answer.

"So, where do you come from?" he asked.

"I come from a colony of pikachu in the woods near Pallet Town." I said.

"Never heard of..." he said.

"He's from the colony near the lake..." another pikachu said. He was standing next to me and had smelled me. "I can smell that. I believe that Tommy was their leader."

"Tommy?" another pikachu asked, perking his ears up. "I was from Tommy's colony as well!"

"Really?" I chuckled. "Well then, I'm your new leader then..." I said.

"New leader? What do you mean?" he asked.

"I am the new colony leader together with Lukas." I said.

"Who's Lukas?" another pikachu asked.

"A pikachu from my colony." I chuckled.

"Alright then..." the first pikachu spoke as he looked sideways. He gave me a hopeless look and sighed deeply.

"I wish I could return to our colony... Actually I don't care which colony, as long I can get away from here..." he said.

"How is Tommy?" another pikachu asked. It was the pikachu which, apparently, was from my colony.

"Tommy died a while ago." I said. The pikachu gasped.

"What... But... How?" he said.

"He was killed in a battle with the group of ekans and arbok." I said.

"Those fucking bastards..." he whispered. This pikachu surely was from our colony. I returned to the pikachu in front of me.

"Can you tell me what they do here?" I asked.

"Well, I'm not really sure what they do here. Every now and then, they get some pikachu from here and they take them away. Most of them don't return. We only had two pikachu that returned, and they said that they were rejected and they were placed back here." he said. I was looking in my pockets. I had felt my phone and I got it out of my pocket.

"What is that?" the pikachu said as he watched it.

"My phone." I said. Those idiots hadn't checked my pockets and forgot all about it. I unlocked the interface. Maybe I could get my location by GPS. I looked at the screen and all hope faded. No signal. We must be somewhere where the signal didn't work or was blocked. Now I thought about it, there was no window in this room, just a small light on the ceiling. I suddenly felt hungry.

"Do you get food?" I said, looking around. "I don't see any."

"Yes we do, the feed us. It's not much, but at least it's food." he sighed as I put my phone away. "There's a kind researcher that gives it to us. There's always someone from Team Rocket with him and we believe he is also captured."

"Oh..." I said. Apparently there were more prisoners here.

"And why are the females over there and you here?" I asked, looking at the females. One of them answered (the cages were next to each other, with some space in between).

"Because some males started raping the females, they decided to split us up." she said.

"That's horrible..." I replied before looking in front of me.

"Do they ever allow you to leave this cage?" I asked.

"Yes, they do. They clean the cage every once awhile, it was cleaned yesterday. We know they need us pretty bad here, because one of the cleaners mentioned that we shouldn't get ill or sick and spread diseases because that would be disastrous for the research here..." he said.

"Did you ever try to escape?" I asked.

"Plenty of times, but they always lock the doors tight. We couldn't get through and shocking it didn't help." he sighed before looking down with a hopeless face again. "If we don't listen to them, they'll hurt us. They use certain things that will overload us, that really hurts..." he said as he shivered.

"You got experience?" I asked. The pikachu looked up and nodded before looking down again.

"Alright then..." I said softly as I pet him between his ears. He smiled a bit when I did that and purred softly. Immediately more pikachu wanted to get pet. They probably didn't receive too much attention in here. While I was stroking some random pikachu, I suddenly wondered where Cammy could be.

"Did you see a white pikachu in here? It's a female and she's completely white." I asked..

"White pikachu? Are you insane? We're yellow...!" one of the males said.

"I know, but Cammy is white and she's my pikachu." I said.

"Oh..." he replied.

"I haven't seen any new pikachu except you..." one of the pikachu said, looking at me.

"I'm a human." I said.

"But you speak pikachu." he smiled.

"I can even smell, see and hear as you guys..." I said.

"Can you... But how is that possible? We usually make fun of humans because they can't smell us but you say you can do everything like us?" he asked.

"You're joking." one of them said.

"Actually it's true." I said. "But you don't have to believe me. I know it sounds weird, but it really is true. That's also the reason they took me." I said as I nodded to the door. "They only know that I am with a group of pikachu, they don't know what I can do. They probably don't even know that I'm able to talk to you guys."

The pikachu still looked at me. Was I speaking the truth or was I just telling some random crap to him? He looked a little bit more before he offered me his tail.

"I'm Sparktail." he said.

"I'm Maurice." I said as I shook his tail. He looked at me.

"I don't have a tail. Even if I wanted to greet you I can't do it your way. This is the way how human greet." I said as I offered my hand again, but this time to his paw. He looked at my hand and grabbed it with both paws.

"No, no." I chuckled. "Just one paw." The pikachu lowered one of his paws. I closed my hand around his other and shook his paw.

"Pleasure to meet you." I chuckled. The pikachu looked at me and decided that what I had just done was weird. He shook his head and then everyone jumped as the door opened. There were three people entering the room. Two Team Rocket grunts and one man in a lab coat. He walked in front of the grunts and stood in the center of the room as the grunts closed the door and stood behind him.

"Go ahead." one grunt said. The man in the lab coat walked over to the cage.

"H-h-h-helllo Maurice." he said as I gave him a very nasty and dangerous glance. Something I learned from my pikachu-self. "You d-d-d-don't have to be afraid of m-me."

"Why would I be afraid of you. I can take you easily." I replied before looking straight into his eyes again. He tried to avoid eye-contact.

"G-g-good p-p-pikachu..." he said.

"I'm not a pikachu, I'm a human." I said with a loud voice.

"Y-y-yes of course you're a human..." he corrected himself quickly.

"Pika-pika..." one of the pikachu said. I quickly changed to pikachu so I could understand him. "Don't be harsh on him, he isn't here out of free will..." the pikachu said. I looked at the pikachu and back at the researcher.

"Where is Cammy?" I asked the researcher. He looked at the grunts to see if he could tell me. One of the grunts looked at him and gave him a quick nod.

"Cammy is safe, I can assure you." he said. "I would like you to come with me nice and without resisting." he added.

"Why? So you can do all kinds of research on my like I'm some kind of lab-pokémon? Just as these pikachu here that are locked in just to be taken and never come back? No thanks." I said. One of the grunts aimed his weapon and shot at me. Some kind of electricity boost went through me. I didn't know what it exactly was, but it did hurt a lot. I screamed and some pikachu also screamed as the beam that was shot wasn't really accurate, some unfortunate pikachu also got hit.

"Don't think you're everything here, you listen to what we say. Am I clear?" the grunt said. I looked at him with a destructive face. The researcher opened the cage. The pikachu were as far from the door as they could to prevent themselves from getting hit. As soon I had left the cage the door was closed when the door of the room opened. Another researcher, one without grunts around him entered the room holding a pikachu. The pikachu was male and didn't move. It's eyes were closed. The researcher opened the cage door and threw the pikachu inside before closing the door quickly again. Everything happened within a couple of seconds. The pikachu fell to the ground and hit some other pikachu which looked mad at the researcher. The researcher wasn't interested and didn't even watch where he threw the pokémon. Instead he looked at me.

"Ah, you must be that Maurice they're talking about." he said. "We'll see each other in a moment."

I did not reply, I just gave him an angry look. After the researcher left, the man in the lab coat went to the door and he went out of the room. The grunts pushed me forward with their guns, indicating that I should follow him. After the door was a inspection room, just as one as in the pokécenter, except this one wasn't as comfortable. We walked up to a blank wall. I looked at the wall and back at the grunts, but the man in the lab coat held his hand in front of the wall and it opened automatically. I looked at the door and walked through. We walked through the Team Rocket complex. Now I was sure of it: we were underground. There were no windows and there were long and square corridors in every direction. We walked across some corridors and then into another room.

The researcher from a couple of moments ago was standing in the room. He looked to a cage. As soon I entered the room he turned around and welcomed me.

"Ah, I was expecting you. Put him there, thank you." he said. I had to lay down onto some sort of chair you see at a doctor. New grunts arrived to escort the man in the lab coat away. He waved vaguely to the researcher before he left the room. I wasn't tied to anything but the researcher checked me with all kinds of devices. It took around an hour. It wasn't painful or anything, more like annoying. More researchers joined the first one and left the room later. In the end there were three of them left. The room was very interesting. There were pictures of pikachu anatomy on the wall and detailed things about the pikachu body.

"He's perfect." he concluded. Both of the other nodded and I was allowed to stand up again.

"Where is Cammy?" I asked.

"Cammy?" he asked.

"The white pikachu." I said, rolling my eyes.

"Oh, she. She's right here..." he said as he opened a cage. Cammy was in there, asleep and connected to more than a possible twenty wires and other things.

"What have you done to her...!" I said as he closed the cage again as I tried to get close but was stopped by the other researchers.

"Oh, nothing. We're just keeping her asleep for now and those are for food, water, electricity levels and other things for pikachu." he said. "But that's not important. Tomorrow we're gonna do some tests with you. Until then you're going back to the other pikachu." he said as he nodded to the guard. They pointed me to the door, but I didn't move.

"What are you gonna do with me and with Cammy?" I said.

"Just some tests. Nothing to worry about. You are perfect for us since you're used to being pikachu." he said. "That's all, now go back to your cage."

"Not until you tell me what you're gonna do to me!" I shouted. The grunt pointed his gun at me but waited.

"As I said, we're not gonna do anything. Some behaviour things and some tests with real electricity." he said. He was nervous. I could sense it with my pikachu-self. I should use these senses more often, they're so handy. They surely were planning more with me than what he just told me.

"Now, back to your cage." he said.

Escorted by two researchers and a guard we quickly made it to the room with the pikachu again. The researches waited outside while the grunt grabbed me and opened the door to the cage. He then pushed me in at such speed that I tripped and landed on a couple of unfortunate pikachu. I got up as he slammed the door behind me. I apologized to the pikachu I fell on. They all nodded or said something softly, probably that it didn't matter.

"Oh, he's in the female cage." one of the researchers said as they came in.

"Can't you see the difference between males and females?" the other chuckled.

"Whatever." the grunt said.

"Yeah, he'll be fine there." they said before they all left the room and closed the door. I looked at the door for a short time before I sat down in a corner of the cage and looked in front of me. Wondering what those tests would be I buried my head in my knees and closed my eyes.

"Pikachu?" I heard. One of the females pulled my jeans.

"I'm fine..." I said as I petted her and smiled. "I'm just wondering what there is gonna happen with me, they're gonna do tests on me tomorrow..." I said as I looked over to the males. Then I saw one new pikachu in the cage. He was looking at me with a strange glance, probably wondering what a human was doing here just as the other pikachu did earlier. It was the pikachu that was thrown in the cage when I was removed from it.

"Hey... Are you alright? You look pretty bad..." I said to him. He looked at me.

"So what they said was true! You can speak our language." he said. "Is it true you're from Tommy's colony?"

"Yes, I am." I said.

"They said you are the new colony leader... Why is a human our colony leader?" he asked.

"It's complicated. I am the co-leader, and Lukas is the true leader of our colony." I said.

"Lu-Lukas?" he said. After I said his name his ears perked up and he looked at me.

"Lukas is the leader of our colony?" he asked.

"Yes, why?" I asked.

"How is he?" he asked.

"He's fine, at least, I hope so, because Team Rocket beat him up pretty bad. But nothing nurse Joy cannot fix." I said, thinking back about the beating Lukas took back at the laboratory. The pikachu gave me an scared glance.

"It he also captured by Team Rocket?" he asked.

"Uhm, no, they left him behind." I said. I wondered why was Lukas so important to this pikachu?

"Good..." he sighed. "Everything better than this."

"Sorry to ask you, but why are you so interested in Lukas?" I asked.

"Lukas... Lukas is my son..." he said softly. I choked in my own spittle and coughed a couple of times.

"WHAT? You're his... father? But you were dead!" I said. "At least, that's what Lukas told me."

"Dead? Me?" he said. "Oh Lukas..." he said as he looked down.

"I... I never died... I got captured by Team Rocket a very long time ago and I'm here ever since. It's terrible in here. I tried to escape multiple times, but it never worked. I kind of gave up on it." he said as he looked down. "I thought Team Rocket had stopped collecting pikachu in our forest. When I got kidnapped, there were quite a lot of pikachu from our colony in here, but I'm one of the last ones left." he sighed. "The other ones got taken away from here and I don't know where they are now or if they're even alive..."

Now I'd think about it - Lukas never mentioned that they found a body or that they found his dad. He had disappeared when he was small. This pikachu must be here for years. I looked at the pikachu.

"I had never expected this to happen, running into Lukas' father..." I said. Lukas' dad stood before the bars with his paws around them looking to the ground.

"It was terrible, the first days I couldn't think about anything but Alissa and Lukas... I wanted to escape and get out but I kind of got used to the idea they weren't here. I still miss them, though..." he said.

"Alissa?" I asked.

"My mate..." he said. Some cold feeling went through me. I hoped that I didn't have to tell him that she die-

"How is she?" he asked.

"She... She..." I hesitated. "She died fighting for the colony." I said, looking down as well. His face turned pale. "She died in the same fight as Tommy, and then Lukas and I got chosen as colony leader." I said.

"No... Not Alissa..." he whispered. "Who killed her?"

"Snakes." I said, knowing that he would know exactly what happened. "Three versus one, they killed her right after Tommy."

"If I ever get out of here..." he said, his cheeks sparking.

"Too late, Lukas already did that. He took out their leader." I said with a wry smile. "That's kind of why we were chosen as leaders from the colony." Lukas dad looked at me like I was kidding him.

"I'm not kidding." I added. Lukas dad smiled a bit before turning to me again. "So how is he? Is he strong?" he asked.

"He is strong, yeah. He was quite weak before but since we started training he quickly got stronger. Let's see... Uhm... Oh, he and Lola have two pichu, Zack and Julie. Josh was killed by poachers..." I sighed.

"He... He has a mate and pichu?" his father replied.

"Yes he has." I replied.

"Pichu?" he repeated.

"Two pichu. One male and one female, Zack is just like him and Julie is just like Lola." I said chuckled.

"Thank you... I... I... I'm pleased to know that Lukas at least has a good... Good..." he said before he turned around and laid down in the other side of the cage, looking to the wall. He probably needed some time alone. He was gone far in thoughts. I kept watching him for a couple of minutes before I focussed my attention to the females in my cage. They were certainly interested in me because I was smelling like pichu. This triggered their instincts. After about thirty minutes I decided to go to sleep. I didn't know what the time was and I didn't bother either. I laid down inside the cage and got myself comfortable when the door opened again and three people came in. One threw another pikachu in my cage quickly followed by two pichu. They landed on the ground in a not very comfortable thud and quickly hid themselves in one of the corners of the cage. After that the people that came in threw some food towards the pikachu and placed two bowls of water in the cages. It was bread and pokéchew. It was really fighting for food, because everyone was hungry and everyone wanted to get as much as possible. In the end I was the only one having food left (as pikachu, pokéchew was pretty good) and the pikachu almost lynched me for it. After I had scared the shit out of them showing that I was electricity proof (the Team Rocket grunts were gone again, otherwise I wouldn't have done it) and that I could handle them, they stopped.

Just when I wanted to eat something again I saw that the female with the pichu did not get anything. The pichu were looking at me with very big eyes and the female rather looked away because she was scared from me. My pikachu side couldn't let it happen that there were sad pichu in this cage and just to not feel guilty about it, I moved towards them (the female pikachu wasn't happy, but as soon she saw I was gonna give the pichu food she was OK with it) and cornered myself so I could keep the other pikachu away from me while I fed the pichu and the female pikachu.

The pichu were quite scared of me because their mother was also scared of me. They tried to hide themselves behind her but I dragged them around their mother and placed them on my lap before I gave them some pokéchew. This made their fears disappear like it was nothing and a couple of minutes later, after we were done eating, I was sleeping with the pichu and the mother in the corner of the cage. The pichu were curled inside my arms which I used to sleep on, because the concrete wasn't a really comfortable place to sleep. The mother was next to me and her children, also inside my hands and against her children. Next to my arms were a couple of other pikachu. They had curled up against my body and decided that sleeping was probably the best to do for now. I noted that there wasn't a single pikachu sleeping on his own. They all either slept with each other or with me. They never slept alone. The same thing for the males, these also slept against each other, not a single one was left alone. That's the difference between humans and pikachu I guess. With one last check of the pichu I felt asleep.

It didn't take long for me to wake up again. My body felt stiff. I moved my body a bit and placed my head on a different place on my arms. The pichu were still far away in pichu-dreamland and I gently placed my head against them again before I tried to fall asleep again. It took me a long time to fall asleep again though. I got my phone out. It was 2AM... I sighed and curled my arms around the pichu and finally fell asleep.

In the morning I woke up from two Team Rocket grunts. They stood before my cage and shouted that I should wake up. The pichu shivered when I lifted my head and sat up. They quickly fled to their mother when I was taken from the cage and brought over to another room. There I was checked quickly by some men before they threw me in another jail cell, or so it looked. I tripped again because they pushed me in way too fast to handle. I stood up and tried to unlock the door but of course they had locked it. I could hear some speech through the door though. They were talking about an experiment, but I couldn't really follow them properly. I looked into my jail cell and gasped. I wasn't alone in here!

There was a boy sitting in the corner. He was in the dark part of the cell, one where it was shady. The boy was probably aged around seven or eight. He was wearing some old clothes, a jeans that was ripped halfway, a yellow shirt and some old shoes and socks. His hair had a short to middle length and he was sitting in the corner with his knees pulled towards his chest and his arms around his legs. He was looking at me like I was the most scary thing in the world.

"What the heck, why is Team Rocket kidnapping children...!" I thought before I moved closed to the boy. But, the boy only tried to crawl away further in the corner, trying to get away from me. I sat down so I wasn't that huge anymore compared to him. He stopped to crawl away, but still looked at me with scary eyes.

"There's no need to be scared of me...!" I said as I moved closer. The boy gritted it's teeth and growled. That the heck, I never saw a human growling...! What was this!

"I'm not one of them!" I said as I stopped moving. The boy took another position, still giving me warning signs that I shouldn't come closer. I looked at him and inspected him a bit. His moves were unfamiliar... He moved kind of strange for a human, his moves weren't natural.

"Can you understand me?" I asked as I took a step backwards and sat down as I tried to win the confidence of the child. He looked at me and didn't answer. His glance was firm and I noticed it was full of... Full of... Heck, this boy almost looked like... But that couldn't be... It just couldn't... That wasn't possible, was it...? I switched to pikachu.

"_Can you understand me like this...?" _I asked, this time in pikachu language. The eyes of the boy turned bigger as he looked at me. He looked at me and checked me all over.

"_Y-y-yes..."_ he whispered softly. I couldn't believe my eyes. Another human capable of speaking pikachu!

"_Who are you?" _I asked kindly as I sat down and moved a bit closer.

"_I am... I'm Sparktail..."_ he said. Great, another Sparktail.

"_And you?"_ Sparktail asked.

"I'm Maurice..." I smiled. I almost didn't want to ask, but I did anyway.

"_Are you a human...?"_ I asked.

"_I don't know..." _he said softly._ "I... I remember that I... That I was pikachu and they... They made me sleep and... I woke up and I was here and..."_ he said confused.

"_And you were human..."_ I finished.

"_Yes..."_ he said. Alright, human that speaks pikachu language and that just said he was a pikachu, this wasn't possible. _"But it's terrible... I want to be a pikachu again...!"_

"Can you talk human?" I asked, changing back to my human-self. The boy said something in pikachu language and then he said something that I couldn't understand. I quickly changed back to pikachu.

"_I can only speak pikachu... I can speak something strange but they don't seem to understand it..."_ he said. I was now next to him and allowed him to sniff my scent. He immediately did this and he looked me over. I decided to test if he was speaking the truth about the pikachu thing and I scratched him under his chin, something all pikachu like. He closed his eyes and groaned softly, something that looked like purring. Then I scratched behind his ears, this also triggered the same response. The boy then curled himself up and crawled in my lap where he wanted to be stroked even more. It was quite bizarre: This boy, had it really been a pikachu? Had he really been one? I couldn't believe my eyes.

"_Can't you walk?"_ I asked when he crawled to a better position. He shook his head.

"_I can't walk, I can only crawl. I keep falling if I try to walk as a human..."_ he sighed.

"_Can I see it?"_ I said as I removed him from my lap and stood up. I offered him my hand and helped him getting up. He stood very wobbly on his feet. I released his hand and immediately grabbed him to prevent him from falling backwards. He thanked me and then tried to walk one or two steps. It was just like a baby trying to walk, but... Different. You could see that this boy had experience with walking, but at the same time hadn't. It was really weird to see. He also didn't walk like a baby or adult would, but at a strange very different sort of pace, which I could recognize as a walking pikachu, if you knew what you were watching. I knew for sure now, this had been a pikachu. He was captured just after he had evolved to a pikachu, or so he told me. I couldn't do anything but believe him. He was showing every pikachu-behaviour that I could think of and my pikachu-self also believed this was a pikachu. His smell was too much pikachu to be a human. He was human for around two weeks now, or something like that, and he had to do tests every single day. The people from Team Rocket treated him well, because he was the first experiment to have success instead of failure, or so he heard.

It didn't take long before the door opened again.

"Maurice, come with me." a man in lab coat said firmly. Behind him I could see Team Rocket grunts. I listened to the guy and stood up, said goodbye in human to the boy, and walked into the laboratory room. I had to sit down on a chair and I had to shut up. The researcher did another test with me. After that, he escorted me in some kind of chair. I had to sit down in it. The laborant took a step backwards and walked back to the computer screen. He nodded at the panel and showed something to another researcher. People in white lab coats walked in and out of the room constantly, while others checked different things.

"What are you gonna do with me?" I asked again, but nobody answered. Then, I had to sit still, and after I refused and got beaten up by a grunt, I sat in the chair and waiting for what was gonna happen. The chair moved upwards a bit, before a glass dome closed all over my head. It went quickly, within one second it was closed and sealed.

"What the... What are you gonna do!" I said when I tried to get up but noticed I was restrained to the chair. I could hear a certain gas entering the dome, you could hear the typical siss that it makes. I tried to get out of the chair but nothing worked, I was trapped. I already felt dizzy, and I felt that I was passing out. I switched to pikachu side in the hope my pikachu side wouldn't pass out, but the switch failed. Probably because my pikachu side was already passed out. I groaned when the feeling got worse and my hearing started to fade. I could still hear something but it was like it was in a huge echoing room... My eyes started to close and with one last groan I passed out.

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><p><em>If you saw that coming, I invite you to send me new ideas! Again, REVIEW please! :)<em>


	27. Changes

_Guess who's back! Sorry for the loooooooooooong wait time, but school is taking my time. Thanks for the reviews and thanks Pichufan for beta reading. Without any further ado, let's move on with the story. I hope you guys enjoy it and please, please leave a review!_

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><p>I groaned softly. I remembered the chair, the gas... The strange smell, I had fallen asleep and... Now I was here. My eyes wouldn't open. I felt faint and weak. At least I had a comfortable place to lay down. It felt soft. My head was on my arms and under that was a soft underground. Probably a nest or something. Thinking this automatically made me aware that I was in pikachu mode. I slowly opened my eyes. The room was kind of bright and I could see sunlight coming through one of the windows. The windows were small and located on the top of the room, almost against the ceiling.<p>

I was on my belly and I looked up. The bed I was on looked huge. The room also looked huge. I shook my head a bit and looked sideways. I was in quite a comfortable room. There was a chair, a normal bed and a light I could turn on and off, as far I could see. I sat up. At least, that's what I tried, because I immediately fell down again. I fell on my back and rolled on my side. Wondering what this had to mean I rolled on my belly and sat up again. Using all my powers I could keep my body up. It didn't feel like I was used to. Like I had gained weight. Like something had changed. I looked down and gasped and fell back on my back again. I immediately rolled on my side. I sat up again, this time keeping my balance. I looked down. My feet were gone, or rather, they had shrunk. I was looking at two small feet. I looked at my hands. Instead, I was looking at two paws. My whole body was covered in yellow fur and looking behind me confirmed I also had a tail shaped like a lightning bolt, which wiggled happily. I touched my right ear and I instinctively moved it.

"No doubt... I turned into a pikachu..." I said as I moved my paws through my fur and touched my feet, my own paws and my ears.

"I'm naked..." I thought when I looked at my body again. But I had fur now, didn't I? I looked around and saw a mirror. It was hanging above a sink next to a toilet. I was in some kind of jail cell, or so it appeared. I stood up, trying not to fall when I stood on my feet. I wanted to walk to the side of the bed. Instinctively I dropped onto all fours and walked to the side of the bed. As soon I realised I was walking on both paws and feet I lost control of the way I was walking. I confused my paws and feet and with a soft thump I felt on the bed as I failed to walk further.

"Arceus. How do you walk like this?" I thought when I sat up and dropped onto all fours again. I walked to the side of the bed successfully.

"Just don't think while waking and it goes all by itself." I thought. I looked down the bed. As human, this height was like nothing. But as pikachu, this was almost four times my own height. I looked down and a certain fear of heights came upon me. Maybe if I switched to human.

"I'm a human." I thought. Blurry thoughts entered my mind. Now I was in this pikachu body, my mind control was kind of switched around. Instead of my human side controlling my pikachu side, my pikachu side was controlling my human side. I tried a couple of times more and managed to switch to human side.

"The fuck..." I thought when I looked down. The bed looked even higher now. I tried to think clear.

"Alright, I'm a pikachu..." I thought as I looked around again. Some kind of panic got over me. I was a pikachu. What had they done to me? I sighed as my pikachu mind kicked in. I shook my body like I was wet. I felt much better when I did this, like I shook all my problems away. I looked to the ground and jumped down. I landed on all fours and I looked to the bed, which looked like a wall now. It was so high... Did I really jump this? I looked up to the sink. There was a mirror up there and I knew I could check myself out in there. My human side knew, at least. I looked up and wondered what I should do. I should be able to jump this with ease... I saw Lukas jump higher heights all day. Getting myself ready to jump (although it wasn't me but my pikachu side that was in control) I crouched, before I leaped up the sink. Although, that was the plan, as I flew right past it and stopped moving up around one meter above the sink. I looked down when I realised I was falling down. I struggled in the air, trying to get myself in a proper landing. Failing miserably, I felt on the sink hard. I whined softly and slid to the drain as the sink was round to make the water flow to the drain automatically. I got up and watched the damage I caused to myself.

"How could I jump that high..." I wondered as I looked into the mirror that was on the sink and attached to the wall. A surprised and bright yellow creature was looking back from the mirror. A pikachu. Me. Confused I touched the mirror. The mirror felt cold but comfortable. My fur filtered the most of the cold. My pikachu side was wondering how there could be another pikachu in here that copied my moves, but my human side quickly told it what a mirror was and how it worked. I looked at myself. Two bright red cheeks and bright yellow fur. I looked at my ears and moved them in amazement. I also moved my tail. It wiggled happily behind my back. I looked in the mirror again before I smiled and sparked my cheeks. Finally my pikachu-self could find the electric source it was so desperate to find in my human body. Finally it could use the electricity to show itself off a bit.

"_Let me do this._" something in my head said. I sparked my cheeks again and created some kind of electric ball all around me. It was quite cool to look at. I smiled in the mirror and then jumped down the sink. Before I knew I had landed on the ground.

"Wow, I really should trust that pikachu instinct more..." I thought as I gave it some more control. I sniffed the air and tried to pick up scents. I could smell humans, probably Team Rocket members that put me here. I jumped back on the bed and looked upwards to the windows. There was certainly sunlight coming through and I looked for a way out. Maybe I could jump it... There was a small ledge up there. I looked to the window and got ready to jump. I lowered my body. The height was probably three or four meters, but my pikachu side didn't know metric units. It just guessed if it could make the jump or not and it tried if it had enough confidence. I lowered my body, checked the height again and used my back legs to jump all the way up. I saw the ledge coming closer when suddenly my speed was all gone. I could grab the ledge quickly with my paws and gasped as I looked down. Falling down this wouldn't be good. I started climbing up, which, thanks to my knowledge of climbing (both as human and pikachu side) wasn't that hard. I panted.

"That was scary..." I thought as I looked out of the window. The sun greeted me with warm rays and I purred softly. It felt so good as a pikachu. I closed my eyes and enjoyed it. The sun felt all different when it touched my fur instead compared to my human skin. I opened my eyes I could see some grass and some trees. This place was barely above ground, because the place I was standing was at ground level. My view was blocked by the trees, the grass, bushes and grey concrete on the background. The complex was gigantic...

Wondering what was gonna happen next I decided that this place would be a nice place to lay down. I lay down on the floor and in the sun and closed my eyes and almost fell asleep immediately. My sleep didn't take long though. I woke up a small time later. I heard sounds. I looked at the door and as I expected and heard, a member of Team Rocket came in. It was a female and she looked like a nurse, and not like some kind of bad guy. I decided to keep still and to do like I wasn't here.

"Alright, let's see... Newcomer..." she said as she was looking on her clipboard. Her voice wasn't stern, more like soothing. Apparently some people with feelings did exist inside Team Rocket. She looked at the bed and noticed I wasn't here.

"Shawwwwwn, did you move the new one?" she called towards the door, which was still open.

"No I didn't, he was still asleep an hour ago." I heard from the door.

"Then where did he go?" she replied.

"He isn't here?" I heard from the door.

"No, otherwise I wouldn't have asked you." she chuckled.

"Linda, I'm not in the mood for jokes." Shawn said as he entered the room as well. He was a male from around thirty-five years. Linda was a bit younger, probably. He looked to the bed. He then looked around and at the wall and the immediately looked at me. My shade, falling on the wall, had told him my location and my ear was visible prominently on the wall making a pikachu shade on it.

"There he is." Shawn said, pointing towards me.

"Wow, he made it up there?" she said. "That's quite extraordinary."

"Indeed it is. I've never seen that happening to newcomers." he replied.

"Hello little pikachu...!" Linda said as she smiled at me. "Are you coming down to us?"

I remained where I was. I felt perfectly fine up here and I wasn't planning on going down again anytime soon.

"Piiiiiiiiii-pika-pika-pika-pikachu." Linda said as she held her hand as close to me as she could.

"Seriously, what is this woman up to." I thought as I moved my head and looked at her before looking to Shawn. Shawn left the room and Linda tried to lure me down again with all kinds of pointless arguments. She was certainly not the brightest. Not in my opinion at least. She got herself into all kinds of strange movements and talked to me with a very high pitched voice, as if I was a baby. Really, what does she think I am? My human side laughed hard at the thoughts of my pikachu side, but at the same time I could perfectly understand it. All humans treated pikachu like babies. Like they were the cutest things in the world. I knew from myself I did the same if I was in the right mood and I also knew that Lukas didn't like when I did that. Now I was confronted with it myself and I understood perfectly what Lukas meant.

"Alright, are you done with luring him down?" Shawn said as he came in. I looked at Shawn with an expression that said 'what the heck do I have to do with this' and he was looking at Linda with the same face expression.

"He just thinks you're crazy." Shawn said.

"What? Pikachu love this." Linda replied as she tried to reach me.

"No, pikachu don't love this. Did you forget what we learned at Pikademy or something?" he said.

"Alright, alright..." Linda replied.

"Pikachu, you come here right now or we'll get you down." Linda said. Fine. Let them get me. Those Team Rockets people... I'm already sick of it. My mind was currently in pikachu mode which didn't had as much thoughts going, but my human side was currently furious at Team Rocket for changing me in the first place and panicked in the second because I didn't had a clue what I should do. Would they understand it was me? Would they understand me at all? Who were these people? And what was this place? And why and how did I change? All that kind of questions, as well as my panicked feeling were all pushed aside by my pikachu-self. I still had to get used to this body and as long that was happening my pikachu body had the lead. My two minds had started cooperating long before I had changed into this pikachu. It took some time, but after a month or so after my pokéball experience I could switch between both without even thinking. In normal life this would go almost unnoticed, but it took quite a time before my mind, head, and body were ready to accept that I was 'controlled' by more than one mind.

But for now, the pikachu side was in control most of the time, and not surprisingly, because I was one. It didn't really take long for me to adapt this because I already had one in my mind. Literally.

"Pikachu, you're coming down right now." Shawn said on a very firm tone. This made me look at him. My pikachu side felt nothing for jumping down. It felt nothing for these people. My human side wasn't amused either, I didn't want to make these grunts get me just like that. I remained where I was and stuck my tongue out to them.

"Alright then." Shawn said as I did that.

"What is it with those pikachu lately... They give them to us just like that and they tell us to take care of them until they're normal again. Almost all of them died within one week and just one survived it, what did we do wrong?" Linda said.

"I don't know, but I'm quite certain they are trying something new on these pikachu. Really, it's not your fault that female died last week." Shawn said while patting her back. "The only thing they tell us is that they may not escape at all cost and that we should care properly for them until they're behaving like normal pikachu."

"Wait, you guys don't know I'm a human?!" I said.

"Yes, you should come down." Shawn said to me with an annoyed glance.

"No, do you know was human earlier?" I said.

"He sounds cute..." Linda chuckled.

"You think every pikachu is cute." Shawn said as he got a broom. He raised it and used it to squish me between the broom and the wall. I growled at the broom. My pikachu side focussed on the broom side but my human side knew I had to focus on the human holding it. I ignored the soft bashing from the broom to get me down and released a small thundershock to Shawn. My first thundershock...! I was a bit proud of myself when I noticed it was my first attack as a pikachu. Shawn took a couple of steps back and dropped the broom.

"He's getting annoying." he said as he grabbed the broom again and this time slammed it into me a lot harder, making me whine a bit.

"Come on, get down here." he said as he slammed into me again. It wasn't hard or painful, just as annoying as hell. He then got the broom behind my bottom and he smiled. He pushed me off the ledge. I looked down and tried to resist, but my paws slid off the ledge and I tumbled down.

"Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" I shouted as I fell down. I was caught by Linda, who was waiting for me under the ledge.

"Got ya." she said as she lifted me and started rubbing my cheeks in a really unpleasant way. She cuddled with me, but I didn't like it at all.

"You're a cute pikachu...!" she said as she continued and touched me everywhere. Kind of the same way I did with Cammy at night when she snuggled up to me, but at a very unpleasant way. She had grabbed me at my arms and I couldn't stand on anything making me hang from her arms. This wasn't a nice position at all.

"Let me gooooo..." I said in a very angry tone. One that would immediately trigger a normal person to release me. I growled at Linda while Shawn placed the broom back where it belonged. He looked at Linda and sighed.

"Linda... Stop that." he said as he came walking up to me and grabbed me from Linda. He placed me on his chest and placed his arm under my feet so I could stand on it. He then placed his other arm around my back and gently ruffled through my fur and gently scratched my ears. The feeling that it gave me was simply amazing. My body relaxed completely as Shawn scratched my fur and my back. He then turned back to my ears and scratched softly. Then he stopped, but my body wanted more. I started to rub my cheeks against his hand, requesting more attention. I cooed softly when he scratched me again. He carried me exactly like I did with other pikachu when I was human. This position was much nicer and much more comfortable. My ears stood up and I could sniff Shawns scent. I did so and he smelled quite nice... For a male. Mostly the females had the best smells, but I liked Shawn more than Linda, which I had checked already when she was holding me. Her scent wasn't normal... I guess she uses too much perfume.

"I don't know if it was a good idea to get you working here... You don't seem like capable of working with those guys." Shawn said as he got his arms comfortable around me by throwing me in the air a bit and replacing his arms quickly and immediately catching me. I looked at Linda and at Shawn. These people didn't seem too bad. I expected them to be harsh on me and to be like heartless, but they weren't at all.

"Awww, but... I love them...!" Linda said.

"I understand, but you'll have to treat them the way they like it and not the way you like it." Shawn chuckled. "Don't mind her... She's new and she just finished her study. She needs more experience with pokémon." he said to me.

"It's alright, but pay attention to the pikachu. A pikachu will signal you when he doesn't like the way you treat him. He was growling at you, that means you're doing something wrong." Shawn said to Linda while he scratched my ears one more time.

"Alright alright... I will..." she replied.

"What do we have to do with this one?" Shawn said.

"Uhm, let's see..." Linda said as she watched her clipboard.

"Full medical check and we have to report the outcome." she said as she placed the papers back on the clipboard and looked at me and Shawn.

"A full medical check?" Shawn said. "Doesn't look very usefull to me but let's do it."

A medical check? That would take awhile... I remember that from the pokécenter I used to work before I entered the pikachu colony. Full medical check took about one hour where nurse Joy would check the body of the pokémon for every possible fracture, wound, or other things. Sometimes even with...

"And with X-ray." Shawn said. "Jeez, they want a full examination on this one..."

"Why? He looks fine to me..." Linda said as she pet me between my ears.

"I don't know, but let's do it. The sooner the better." Shawn said as my belly grumbled loudly.

"Someone's hungry!" he said as he looked down to me. "No wonder, you've been out for at least twenty-four hours..." he said. Twenty-four hours? Was I gone for that long?

"Linda, would you get some pokéchew and some water for me?" Shawn said as we entered a room with medical equipment. The smell in here was strange... He placed me on a table. It had some green kind of stuff on it, but it felt soft and comfortable. He turned around and fetched some stuff he was gonna use to check me over. I looked around and I saw some cages. They were all empty, except one. One contained a pikachu, a female. She had been awakened by our entry and was now standing with her paws against the bars and looking at us. She looked at me and at Shawn. I looked back at her and we looked each other in the eyes. She actually looked pretty... pretty! My human side interrupted my pikachu side with some kind of annoyed thoughts.

"Mr. Pikachu falls in love with the very first female it sees. Great. This is gonna be fun." it thought. Whatever. Linda came in and placed the food and water next to me. Shawn placed some stuff next to me he needed for the examination. He noticed that I was looking at the pikachu in the cage.

"Oh, you've seen Nikki." he said. Nikki? So her name was Nikki. I stopped looking at her when I noticed a very nice smell right next to me and I noticed the food. Happily I started eating it. The pokéchew actually tasted really good as a pikachu! Better than when I was in my human form. It still felt a bit strange to really be a pikachu... I jumped when Nikki slammed the bars of her cage back and forth. She looked at me and then looked at Shawn with her ears completely folded sideways and hanging tail.

"I want food too...!" she said softly.

"You hungry too?" Shawn said. "Maybe we should introduce you two to each other."

"I'll get some pokéchew for her as well." Linda said. "She didn't have any yet today."

"I asked you to feed her! Why you didn't do it?" Shawn asked.

"Because I was about to give her the pokéchew and then he woke up." she said, nodding at me. "That pokéchew was hers."

"Oh... Well, hurry up, she's hungry!" he chuckled as he opened her cage and got her out. He picked her up and placed her next to me. I didn't care, I was eating. The pokéchew was much more important than her. She stood next to me and looked at me.

"Don't worry, your food will be right here." Shawn said to her as he placed his hand on her head and slowly started to massage her head and her ears. She purred happily. Linda came in with another feeder with pokéchew.

"There you go!" she said as she placed the feeder next to Nikki. Nikki immediately started eating as well. After a while we were both done (Nikki ate quicker than me) and I stood up. After sipping some water, I looked around.

"You done? Then we'll start the examination." Shawn said. I drooped my ears. Nothing inside me really wanted to have an examination right now. I wanted to sleep, explore some stuff, play.

"No worries, it doesn't hurt." Shawn said.

"Tell me something..." I said.

"What... You know what that medical thingy is?" Nikki said. I turned around and looked at her.

"Yes, I do. They're gonna check you over and they're gonna do all kinds of stuff with your body and they're gonna make some photo's with X-ray." I said. Nikki turned her head.

"Really? How do you know?" she asked.

"Because I..." I said. "...because I was human."

Nikki looked at me and pulled a funny face.

"Human? But you're a pikachu!" she chuckled. "By the way, you smell nice..." she said as she came closer and sniffed me. She stood closer and purred at me.

"I think Nikki likes him." Linda said as she looked at Nikki trying to make avances with me. How shall we call him?

"Don't know... What do you like?" Shawn asked her.

"Maurice!" I said. "My name is Maurice!" I repeated while waving my arms.

"He likes that we're giving him a name!" Shawn said.

"My name is Maurice! You don't need to make up a name!" I said.

"Really?" Shawn said. That's really interesting. I knew he didn't understand one thing I said to him, which was very, very annoying and very, very stressing.

"MY NAME IS MAURICE!" I shouted. Shawn took a small step back.

"Hey, no yelling." he said with a firm tone.

"I DON'T YELL, YOU JUST DON'T LISTEN!" I shouted as I jumped and waved my arms.

"He wants to tell us something, that's clear." Linda said as she looked at me.

"Yep, but the big problem is... What does he want to tell us." Shawn said as he crouched before me so that our eyes were on the same height.

"What's the matter buddy." he asked while looking in my eyes. I just stood there trying to figure out how I could tell them something.

"I just want to tell you that... I'm human! I'm Maurice! I'm one of yours...!" I said, knowing that it probably was no use. Shawn sighed.

"I can't understand you... Is there something you want to tell us?" he said as he looked at Linda. I quickly nodded my head.

"Alright, there is something." Shawn said as I looked around. I spotted a computer. Maybe I could send them a message by typing it on the computer! I jumped from the table and walked over to the computer. Shawn followed me as I jumped the table with the computer. I looked at the screen. There was some kind of window showing.

"Could you make me able to use it?" I said, pointing at the computer.

"You wanna use the computer?" Shawn said unsurely. I nodded. The pointing had done it's work. I should rely in easier communication until I could tell them everything I had on my mind right now. It was still a strange feeling for me to be a pikachu and now my human mind was in charge, but when my pikachu mind would return in charge I'd behave entirely different. I was still getting used to everything and very unpredictable.

"Uhm, alright then..." Shawn said as he sat behind me. His arms went past me and he typed something and he logged on. Then he stopped and waited for me to do something. I looked at the keyboard and typed something.

"Can you type words?" Shawn asked as he saw me doing my stuff. "Wait a second, I'll open up Word."

He opened Microsoft Word.

"Alright, you can type now." he said. I nodded and looked at the keyboard.

"Alright..." I thought as I watched the letters. "I... am... Maurice..." I said as I looked over the letters again. But the letters had no meaning to me. They were just some kind of symbols on a keyboard. I looked at the keyboard again and I saw the 'M'. The first letter from my name. Happily I typed the 'M' and then looked at the keyboard again. I just started typing in random stuff.

"I... Am... Maurice..." I typed while saying the words out loud. The typing went quicker than expected. I was done and I looked at Shawn. He looked back at me.

"Pq... grwefa... mnbejaf...?" he said with some hassle while giving me a questioning glare. I looked at the letters on the screen and then at Shawn.

"No, no!" I said as I shook my head and pointed at the monitor. "I am Maurice!"

"I don't know what you mean..." Shawn said with his hands around Nikki, who had jumped his lap and was watching me with interest. I pressed some random buttons on the keyboard and looked at Shawn again.

"Asdfghj?" he said. I saw he was getting fed up. "You can't use a computer, are you just trying to prevent me from doing stuff with you?" he said. I quickly shook my head and sighed unhappily. Shawn placed an arm around me.

"It won't hurt...!" he said with a smile. Linda took Nikki from him as Shawn picked me up and placed me back on the table. He scratched me behind my ears and got me ready for the medical check. Nikki was placed back in the cage and told to keep it calm, but they didn't close her cage so she could come out whenever she wanted. Almost immediately she jumped back out and joined me on the table.

"You're funny. I didn't know you could use a computer." she chuckled.

"I can't. Not anymore... I wanted to tell them something but I don't understand it..." I said.

"Well I do neither, so that proves you're a pikachu and not a human!" she said happily as she rubbed her cheek against mine.

"Nikki, give me some room please." Shawn said. He was busy checking my body from top to bottom. He was currently at my left arm and he was softly pinching it and looking if my bones were on the right spot and if they weren't hurt in any way. Nikki took a couple of steps back and watched the whole process with interest.

"They also did this with me." she said as she watched as Shawn placed me on my belly and started to check my head and ears. My ears moved frantically when he touched them. Using one hand to keep it still, he checked my ears one by one and moved on to my tail. I sat back up as he continued the work and Nikki came closer again.

"Really?" I asked.

"Yep. I didn't like it when they touched me everywhere..." she said softly. "But when I started squirming they put me down and held me... I thunderbolted him and then they tied me before they continued." she said before she nodded at Shawn, who just put his hand under my chin and forced me to look away from her. I shook my head and tried to get away from Shawn but he grabbed me and forced me to look at him again.

"You're... Annoying..." I growled as him.

"I know you don't like it-" he said in response to my growling "-but it is for your own good."

"Sure..." I replied, still groaning.

"So when did you get here?" I asked Nikki as Shawn moved over to my ears and the back of my head.

"Me? Don't know... Maybe a couple of days ago..." she said.

"Did you life in a wild pikachu colony or something?" I asked as Shawn moved down my belly with his hand and felt my ribs.

"I don't know..." she said as she looked a bit vague.

"All I remember is that I woke up and that I was here somehow." Nikki said as she looked at me and smiled.

"Wait." I said as I got up from my back. "You don't know where you came from?"

"Uhm... No." she smiled.

"Hey, get back down, I wasn't finished." Shawn said as he pushed me over and continued his investigation.

"I'm almost done." Shawn said.

"Shawn?" Linda said.

"Yeah?" he replied.

"They'll come and fetch them both within an hour." she said as she walked in. "She just called."

"Oh, then we should leave X-ray out." Shawn said.

"We can still make that." Linda said as she looked on her watch. "If it's free."

"Yeah, let's do it." Shawn said as he picked me up.

"I can walk myself, thank you." I said as I struggled to get out of his grab.

"No, you cannot go, I'm holding you, you may not escape at any cost." he said. "Linda, take Nikki or put her in her cage."

"I'll take her, she seems to like him." she said as she picked up Nikki, this time the same way as Shawn.

"Oh this is definitely better!" Linda said as she carried Nikki behind Shawn. Shawn entered a room which I recognised as an X-ray room. The smell in there was strange too. I was tied to a table (much to my pikachu-side-displeasure, but my human mind kept my pikachu side silent) to prevent me from moving so the photo could be taken properly. After the picture was made I was released again and picked up by Shawn who took me to a third room. Nikki and Linda followed quickly. They put both of us inside a small playground while they got the photo's from the computer and printer. Nikki quickly started playing, jumping some stuff and doing some basic exploring. I wasn't interested in that, even though my pika-side surely wanted to explore this playground.

"Can't we explore?!" I heard inside my head.

"Why should we... I'm much more interested in my photo." my human side said to my pikachu side. And that was true - since I had a small medical background I was certainly interested in my X-ray. I could detect major differences on the photos, like big fractures. Nurse Joy had showed me some X-rays earlier and it required much skill and much knowledge of the anatomy of a pokémon to spot exactly what was the case. In case of pikachu I knew the basics and I was just interested in my photo.

"Awww but Nikki is..."

"...a nice female, I know." my human side finished kind of annoyed.

"Ever since you saw her you're in love with her, aren't you?" my human side said.

"Of course! She's a pretty female!" the pika-part answered. "Maybe she even wants to mate!"

"ERHM, excuse me?!" my human side replied.

"Well why not?" my pikachu side replied and forced my body to look at her. The pikachu hormones were raging through my body, I could feel it. Happily my human side wasn't affected by them, in other words, it could still think clearly. My human side took control and forced my pikachu side to jump the fence that separated me from Linda and Shawn who were now looking at my photo. A nice X-ray from my entire body was standing on the special light that made them able to check it. I jumped over the fence and then walked over to Shawn. He noticed that I had 'escaped' and looked at me.

"Hey hey hey, don't get out." he said as he ducked and wanted to pick me up. I evaded him with ease and quickly climbed his trousers as he got up. I continued my way up, using my claws to get all the way up to his shoulder at lightening speed. It took my just a couple of seconds to get there. Shawn and Linda looked at me.

"So you want to stay with me?" Shawn chuckled. "Well that's alright I guess."

I looked at both of them before I gazed at my photo. I watched a couple of seconds.

"That's you!" Linda said at a high voice. "That's your bones, those are inside you." she said as she softly pinched my arm to show me where my bones where.

"Don't pinch me..." I growled annoyed, not only because of the pinching but also because of the voice. I looked at the photos again before I jumped the table that was standing against the wall and just under the X-ray photo's. I watched my own photo while Shawn was also watching it and making some notes. My pikachu sides napetost was gone already. It was like playing around in my head causing confusion.

I suddenly noticed something strange on the photo. One thing was strange about the photo. Something near my leg. I looked around and saw only one of those strange dots. I looked at my left leg. The thing was small and I couldn't see it from outside.

"Hey Shawn..." I said. I heard the words left my mouth as "Pikachu-pi..."

"Shawn...!" I said. Shawn now looked up and watched me.

"Something wrong?" he asked. I used my paw to point at the photo.

"There's something strange on it." I said.

"Yeah, that's you!" he said smiling and nodding at the photo before continuing his notes.

"Shawn!" I said again. Now he looked immediately. This was so frustrating. Nobody understood me.

"I think he's trying to tell you something..." Linda said.

"You think so?" Shawn said as he looked at me again.

"He's acting so strange... I've been watching him for a couple of minutes now but he isn't acting... Normal... Not like other pikachu I've seen." she said. "Give him a chance. That trick with the computer was something quite extraordinary. I was surprised he understood you had to log on that thing to make it work."

"Well, OK." Shawn said, sighing, not really wanting to believe this.

"You want to tell anything...?" he said to me like he had asked before, but a lot more annoyed this time.

"Yes!" I said, nodding and pointing at the photo.

"The photo?" he said. "What's with that?"

"There's something strange on it!" I said as I pointed my paw at the photo again. I was standing against the wall trying to reach it, but it was too high.

"You wanna point at something?" he said as he looked at Linda and picked me up to held me in front of the photo. Great, now I could point properly. I pointed at the odd point in my leg.

"What the fuck..." Shawn said as he looked at me and at the photo.

"That's an... What is that?" he said as Linda came close too. He put me down as both examined the photo closer.

"That looks like... I don't know..." Linda said. "But what I think is even stranger... How can a pikachu know that this is something strange on a X-ray photo?" she said as she looked at me. I just pulled an annoyed face.

"Indeed..." Shawn said as he looked at the photo and at me.

"Can I check you?" he asked. I looked at him and quickly understood. I sat down and put my left leg in front of him and pointed at it.

"You mean this?" I said. Shawn blinked a couple of times with his eyes.

"What the..." he said as he pinched himself.

"A pikachu with medical knowledge?" he said astonished. Linda started at me and Shawn did the same.

"But... How can he..." she said...

"Are you gonna look at my leg or what?" I said as I moved my leg to make them focus on it.

"Oh yeah, that thing." Shawn said. Let me feel..." He felt my leg at the exact position where the object should be.

"Oh, I think I know." he said as he reached under the table and got some kind of white stick. He moved it past my leg when the device beeped.

"Looks like this pikachu is chipped." he said as he read the information from his scanner.

"Chipped? That meant they could probably track me anywhere I go." I thought.

"Let's see... Pikachu... Yes... Male... Yes..." he said as he checked some more things when I got up and sat in front of my X-ray again. I looked at it. I couldn't find anything weird anymore.

"His information is correct, as far I know." Shawn said. "The only thing is... How the hell does he know medical things? He probably can understand us too perfectly... Can you?" he said as he looked at me. I nodded my head.

"But... How? Do you have a name?" he asked. I nodded again.

"No wonder that you tried that computer trick." he said. "You're obviously smarter than an average pikachu... Are you?" he said as he looked at me. I nodded again.

"At least you can answer some questions." he said when there was a buzzing sound.

"Oh yes, right, they were coming to pick you two up." Shawn said as Linda moved to the door.

"Wait, what?" I said, kind of scared.

"They're coming to fetch you and Nikki." Shawn said. He must have understood what I said because of my tone of voice. "No need to be scared."

"Nikki!" he said to the female in the playground. She was grooming herself on top of one of the thingies in there. Her ears perked up as she heard her name and she quickly came to Shawn. He picked her up and placed her in front of one of the travel baskets on the desk that Linda had prepared. He also placed me on the same table when the door opened and the same female grunt entered that had kidnapped me earlier. I remembered her face. She wasn't wearing any of her Rocket clothing, just normal everyday clothes. I switched my mind to pikachu immediately and got ready for the worst.

"Hello there Shawn, how are you?" she said as she shook his hand.

"I'm great Faia, thank you." he replied.

"And how are my pikachu doing?" she replied.

"Not very well, I'm afraid." he said. "Sadly, three have passed away. These two didn't pass away and are completely fine." he said as he pointed at me and Nikki.

"Ah, yes, Nikki..." she replied as she petted the female. Nikki purred and tried to rub Faia's hand.

"Oh, you are a good pikachu...!" she laughed to Nikki as she moved her hand across her cheek up to her ears and scratched her ears.

"And how's Maurice?" she said, smiling at me. I didn't return the smile. I growled fiercely at her.

"His name is Maurice?" Shawn said.

"Yes, I didn't tell that to you?" she smiled.

"No, you seem to forgot to mention that." Shawn said.

"I'm sorry for that." Faia said as she tried to pet me. "Maurice, act nice will you...!" she said, still smiling to me and trying to pet me again. "Don't you remember me?"

I did remember her. As soon her hand came close I tried to bite it.

"MAURCE!" Shawn said with a firm glance.

"Nikki, do you know this female?" I said, watching her but in fighting stance towards Faia.

"No, but she's nice to me!" she replied, smiling and purring.

"Where did you get this pikachu?" Shawn asked to Faia.

"The forest, why?" Faia said as she pulled her hand away and watched Shawn.

"Well, he acts quite extraordinary." Shawn said.

"How so?" Faia said, not really understanding what he meant.

"Well, he tried to communicate with us by using the computer, and he managed to find his chip on the X-ray photo." Shawn said. "He really behaves differently, he has knowledge I never saw with a pikachu."

"Really?" Faia said as she stared to me. "That shouldn't be possible..." she added very softly. Shawn couldn't hear it. She also gave me a firm glance. "That's really interesting. I didn't know pikachu could do that."

"I really would like to keep Maurice here so I can investigate him." Shawn said. "Is that possible?"

"Oh, I'm sorry Shawn... I need him myself." she said, giving him an made up excuse face.

"That's too bad then..." Shawn said. "What are you doing with those pikachu? I would really like if you tell me, I'm not feeling fine with losing three pikachu in less than a week..." he said.

"I'm sorry, but that's company related." Faia said. "I can tell you that we use them for experiments... We try to make it as perfect as possible and sometimes you have to accept that some pikachu die for that. We're finally on the right way I guess." she added.

"Don't think we're killing pikachu for fun though, we don't like that they passed away at all." she said. "Sadly, sometimes we cannot prevent it."

"Uhm, well... Alright then..." Shawn said. Linda came in.

"Time to get into your cage guys, you're going on a trip." she said. Shawn turned around and pushed Nikki inside the cage. She didn't want to enter it at first, but after Shawn pushed her a bit, she entered. I was a different story. I didn't want to get in. Shawn pushed me inside as well, but I used my claws and paws and feet to prevent him pushing me in it.

"Don't... Push... Me..." I growled as Shawn stopped.

"You need to get in there, Maurice!" he said. I turned around and sparked my cheeks at him. I stood on my back legs and shook my head, clearly indicating that I wasn't going to enter.

"You get the documents, I'll handle this." Faia said to Shawn.

"Are you... OK then." he said as he say Faia's glance. Linda had left the room already to do other stuff. Shawn left the room and Faia looked at me. I growled dangerously at her and sparked my cheeks.

"So, you're able to read X-ray and to use a computer?" she said. "Apparently there's some human left in there... " she mumbled. I sparked my cheeks again as her hand came close.

"Don't worry, I'm not killing you." she said. "Just checking how your transformation went..."

She moved her hand closer. My pikachu side wasn't exactly happy with that. My instincts told me to keep that hand away from me. To protect myself from her at all costs. She came even closer. I sparked my cheeks again and when her hand got even closer I launched a strong thunderbolt that hit her. She screamed and fell to the ground. Almost immediately I heard footsteps outside of the room. Faia wasn't hurt badly, she immediately got back on her feet. Apparently my thunderbolt wasn't as strong as I wanted it to be. Shawn came around the corner.

"Already thought so." he said as he came closer and grabbed me before I could react. He quickly placed me in the cage and closed it so I was locked in with Nikki.

"I'm sorry for his behaviour. When I was around him, he was a good pikachu." Shawn said.

"No worries, I think he's still a bit feral." Faia said as she put a fake smile at Shawn.

"Alright then." Shawn said.

"I'll be going, they're expecting them." she said as she looked at me and Nikki. I was still growling at Faia.

"Alright, I'll see you tomorrow with new pikachu?" he asked.

"Yes, there will be three pikachu coming." she said.

"Ah, that's good. I'll prepare the rooms." he said.

"That's great, see you tomorrow then." she said as she grabbed our cage and lifted it. The cage was pretty small. We could stand in it and we could walk a couple of steps, but it was still very tight for two pikachu. Nikki and I were on the floor of the cage cuddled up together. This to my displeasure but Nikki's fun. She liked being around me, and my pikachu side liked being around her as well. My human side was the only that was uncomfortable right now, even though it was used being around pikachu all the time. We were carried out of the building and into a van. Faia placed us on the front seat and then she got in the drivers seat. She closed the door and started the van. Nikki got closer to me and whimpered.

"What's the matter?" I said to her.

"This... Thing... Is scary! What is happening?" she said.

"Wha... What?" I said, not understanding her.

"What is this?" she said as the car started moving. Nikki cuddled against me and shivered.

"Oh, this is just a car..." I said, gently nuzzling her cheek. "Just a way of humans moving around."

"Oh... I thought it was trying to kill me..." she said.

"Kill you? Silly." I said as I nuzzled her cheek once more and laughed at her.

"Maurice, I don't know how you managed to keep your human side in there." she said to me. "You should have lost it, just as happened to all those other pikachu."

I looked at her. She looked at me with some sort of angry face before she turned her attention back to the road. I looked at Nikki. The pikachu looked back at me with a questionable face.

"You mean that... Nikki..." I said to her.

"Yes, Nikki was human as well." Faia said.

"You were human too?!" I said to Nikki. Nikki looked at me with the same questionable face.

"What... What are you talking about? I'm a pikachu...!" she said confused. Faia looked at us again. She must have heard what I asked and what Nikki answered about the tone of my voice.

"She doesn't remember a thing, asking her is useless." she said. "You're the first pikachu to even remember me. As soon Shawn told me that you were acting strange, and as soon you bit me, I knew your memory was preserved. And even though I can't really understand you, I'm not insane." she said. "But I can assure you, if you don't cooperate with us now, I'll make sure Cammy won't live. You have been warned." she said. I growled to her. Nikki took her distance from me as I growled fiercely at Faia.

"You won't dare to do that!" I said.

"Yes I will if you don't cooperate with me." she said, looking at our cage. "And if you even try to prevent us from getting what we want, I'll personally make sure you won't see her ever again!" she said while looking at me and Nikki. Nikki was against the back of the cage, scared about the sudden change of tone of Faia. I looked at Faia and then I looked out of the front window again and gasped. Faia stopped watching us and looked out of the window as well before she screamed. While looking at us, Faia didn't notice a sharp corner coming right our way. She quickly turned the wheel and managed to make the bend somehow, but as soon the bend was finished she drove to the wrong side of the road due to her steering. She steered back to the right lane but did this way to quickly making the van tilt dangerously. She steered back to the wrong way of the road to prevent us falling, but as soon she steered the van tilted at the other side. I already knew what was gonna happen and braced myself. After one more steering to the other side the tilt became too much and the van fell on it's side, slid off the road and rolled over to the other side when we hit a tree. Then everything went black.

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><p><em>Thanks for reading, please review!<em>


	28. On the move

_Hello everyone, guess who's back again._

_First of all, thanks for all the reviews. Keep 'em coming, I really like to read what you guys think about the story. _

_Second, I'd like to clear things up. Several people e-mailed me asking if I have a writers block. This is NOT (and I repeat: NOT) the case! I was on holiday, that's all. I already have the main story planned ahead, I only have to write towards it. That takes some time._

_Third, a couple of people have suggested a community. If you know one for me or if you know how I can create one, feel free to send me a message._

_And as usual, thanks Pichufan for the beta-reading._

_Without further ado, let's go to the story. I hope you enjoy this part, I think a lot of you want to know what happened after the car crash! Enjoy and don't forget: REVIEW PLEASE! ;)_

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><p>I opened my eyes and looked around. I was in the grass with my nose towards the forest. It was hot, very hot. Right next to me was my cage. Shattered in thousand pieces as it had crashed through the windshield and into another tree next to the road. I shook my head and immediately fell a bit better. I quickly looked around to see what happened. I turned around and immediately jumped back when one of the tires of the van exploded. I suddenly realized the heat that came from the fire that engulfed the van and took a couple of steps back.<p>

"Nikki..." I thought as I looked around. I saw her. She was somewhat closer to the van, not moving. I started realizing more things as I overcame the shock. My fur was full with pieces of plastic from my cage and I felt stings everywhere. Another tire was blown, creating a short blowtorch. I ducked quickly before I made my way over to Nikki. I grabbed her scruff and pulled her away from the fire. She didn't respond to me in any way. After the van was out of sight I stopped and looked at the pikachu. I laid my ear on her tummy and I could hear her heart beat. I felt her mouth with my paw - I also felt breathing. At least I knew she was still alive. She didn't look too bad, except for some plastic in her fur as well. Small pieces of our cage had dug their way into us as we must have flew out of the car.

"Nikki..." I said as I shook her back and forth. She did not respond.

"Nikki..." I said again as I shook her again. Still no response. I looked around and suddenly realised.

"Faia!" I thought as I looked at the van. I quickly ran towards it and ran around it. Big black smoke was coming from the burning rubber. I looked around. Did she get out? I couldn't see her anywhere around here. I looked at the side of the van. It was burning quite seriously and flames were coming out of all sides possible. I walked around the van (taking some safe distance from it) and looked at the drivers seat. Someone was still in there. I looked away, knowing that it was too late. Even though I didn't like Faia at all, I never would wish her this...

I closed my eyes and sighed. My pikachu mind kicked in, if I couldn't see the problem it wasn't there. Wild instincts I had seen in the colony earlier kicked in. This wasn't my problem. I shouldn't worry about it. I opened my eyes and I walked back to Nikki. She was still not moving. I looked around. A car was coming our way quickly. I grabbed Nikki at her scruff and dragged her away from the place. She still wasn't moving at all.

"Faia...!" I heard someone shout.

"Oh no..." I heard a woman. Shawn and Linda showed up at the accident. It was hard to miss due to the amount of smoke coming from it. I looked at them through the bushes. Although they were nice, I wouldn't want to return to them. They would probably lock me up again and give me to Team Rocket afterwards.

"You calling emergency services?" Linda said. I saw Shawn walking around the vehicle. There was nothing he could do.

"Yes. I just hope she was thrown out of the car." Shawn said as he walked towards the side of the van and looked around it.

"What about Maurice and Nikki...?" Linda said as she looked as well.

"I don't know, Linda. I hope they didn't..." Shawn said as he got answer from his telephone. Linda walked around the van when suddenly a huge flame erupted from it. Shawn saw it and told Linda to stand well back. About fifteen seconds later, the van exploded in a huge fireball.

"Gas tank." Shawn said after a couple of seconds when Linda walked back to him and on the road. "The fire must have got through it... That doesn't happen a lot..."

"The pikachu have survived." she said. "Their cage is over there. It's broken and it's empty."

"Really? Then they must be here somewhere." Shawn said when I heard sirens. I decided it was enough and I turned around and dragged Nikki with me into the forest and towards a Pokécenter, if I could find one.

I dragged the female across the forest floor, deeper into the forest. The leaves were rustling and behind me I heard some sirens. I kept moving. I pushed bushes out of the way and kept dragging Nikki behind me. It was like she was getting heavier and heavier. After a minute or five, I stopped and panted. Nikki wasn't heavy but not light either. As a pikachu I couldn't lift her as easily as I could as a human. Or could I? I tried to lift Nikki on my back. Surprisingly it went fairly easy. I could walk with her on my back. It certainly went faster than dragging her all the way. I sighed and moved further into the vegetation. I had to get to a pokémon center. Nurse Joy would surely fix her and me up. I stopped for a moment and looked at my fur. The plastic that was still in there was aching and hurting me at the same time. I tried to remove the plastic but as soon I removed one piece blood came sipping out of the wound. I decided it wouldn't be good to take out the rest as well because I would bleed to death if I would do that.

I didn't know how much time passed while I was taking Nikki to a pokémon center. I just walked through this endless forest. A place I should be happy to be in, but I was anything but happy. I felt painful, my skin was irritating me and I was still busy carrying another pikachu with me. I looked around and sniffed the air for possible predators. I detected another pokémon. It was closeby and it was coming this direction. I could hear it coming this way with my ears and my nose detected its smell. I tried to hide myself quickly to prevent being seen, but I was too slow and the pokémon appeared from the bushes. A pikachu. And another one. Two pikachu appeared. Both looked around and spotted me and immediately got into fighters stance. I dropped Nikki and did the same. The pikachu looked at me and sniffed the air before he stood back on his hind legs.

"What are you doing here?" he said before he came closer. I stood up on my hind legs as well and groaned in pain.

"Whoa, what happened to you two? And why are you so far from the colony?" he said as he came closer and checked on both of us.

"They are not from our colony." the other pikachu said. "They smell strange."

"Who are you?" the first pikachu said while giving me a warning glare, telling me not to joke with him.

"Who are YOU?" I asked in return. "I'm not gonna tell anything until I know who you are." He pulled his eyebrow. The answer I gave him was not a standard answer.

"What?" he said as they both checked Nikki.

"Get away from her!" I said as I sparked my cheeks. He and the other pikachu backed off.

"Hey, calm down will ya!" he said before sparking his own cheeks as well.

"We're from a pikachu colony nearby. Quite far from here, actually." he said. "We smelled you and that other pikachu just now and we wondered what another pikachu was doing here. We are the only colony around."

"You're not from our colony, aren't you?" the other asked. I shook my head.

"What happened to you? You smell strange, like fire." he said. "Did you come from that fire over there?" he asked, pointing to the big black smoke coming from the car crash site.

"We were heading there, to see what happened..." the other pikachu said.

"I wouldn't go there." I said as I shook my head. "They will try to catch you. A car has crashed and catched fire - someone died in the fire."

"Car?" one pikachu asked.

"Metal things on wheels that humans use to move around." I said, facepawing.

"Oh, those things. They move pretty quick... One of our colony got killed by them recently. We can't help it the road is nearby..." he said with hanging ears.

"I... I was in that car..." I said.

"You were in there?" one pikachu asked. "But you said that it was on fire. How'd you get out?"

"I was thrown out when we crashed - I don't really know what happened exactly. I remember that the car went on its side and the next thing I remember was that I woke up in the grass and that it was on fire... These things..." I said as I pointed to the plastic in my fur, "...is from the cage I was in. It shattered to pieces and then I took Nikki with me, away from the fire. It was really hot." I said.

"Wow..." one of the pikachu said. "That's scary... But why were you with the humans? Why did you have a cage?"

"Well..." I said as I thought if I should tell them my transformation story. I decided not to.

"They captured us and used us for various tests. They said they were moving us to another facility so they could test us further. And then we crashed while they were moving us." I said.

"Well, welcome to our forest." one pikachu said. "I'm Robby - I'm one of the defenders of our colony." he said as he offered me his tail. "You smell familiar, but I don't know why."

"I'm Maurice." I said as we shook our tails with a pika-like handshake.

"Maurice?" he said, looking at me. "Your name is Maurice?"

"Uhm... Yes." I said, not knowing what he meant.

"Funny. You have the same name as that human from Tommy's colony. We thought that guy went insane or something." he said. "I mean, what human would join a pikachu colony? But he is pretty cool. He visited us one day when Lukas was new colony leader because Tommy died. The pichu and young pikachu loved him."

"Oh, so you are from Uri's colony?" I said without thinking.

"Yeah, we are!" he said.

"But, how do you know that?" the other said.

"Well I am from Lukas' colony." I said.

"Oh, so you know Maurice?" he said.

"Yes, I do." I said.

"Cool." he said. "How is he? He was pretty cool."

"Oh, he's fine. He managed to learn pikachu language." I said, knowing that I was talking about myself. But I didn't want these pikachu to know that I WAS Maurice. Not yet. They would probably tell me I was crazy...

"Can you help me with Nikki?" I said as I pointed to the female behind me. "She has been like this since the accident and I need to get her to a pokécenter... I'm afraid she'll die if I don't do that..."

"Pokécenter?" one of the pikachu asked. "Why would you want to do that?"

"Because nurse Joy can heal her." I said. "Team Rocket brought me there when I was hurt and she helped me." I lied to them.

"Oh..." one of the pikachu said. "Well that's OK but we'll get you back to our colony first. Are you hungry?"

"Not really..." I said. "I'm hurt because of these things in my fur... Everytime I move they itch and stitch into my skin."

"Doesn't look good indeed..." one of the pikachu said. "Let's go back to our nest, maybe one of the elders can help you a bit."

The pikachu took me back to their nest. We walked through forest and clearings and since we were with three pikachu now carrying Nikki went a lot better.

After walking for twenty minutes we arrived at the nest. Uri's Colony was a colony close to Viridian City. I was there only once, after Lukas became our colony leader. There were multiple other pikachu colonies around ours, but our colony was the biggest in the region of Pallet Town and Viridian. Most of the colonies were friendly. There wasn't much tension between the colonies and sometimes pikachu from other colonies slept inside our nest when they were on journeys or anything like that. There was only one enemy colony but that one was located far away and the pikachu from that colony rarely even showed their presence. They were very shy to spot, even as a pikachu. The raichu that sometimes raided the colony came from there, had Lukas once told me.

"Alright we're there." Robby said. "This is our colony. It's not that big as yours, but it's nice."

We entered a clearing that looked similar to our own colony. In the center there was a main entrance which the pikachu could use to enter and leave the colony. Around the colony were some sand pits and some apple trees that the pikachu used to gather food and to do stuff. My pikachu part almost jumped. It immediately felt like home for my pikachu mind.

"It's great...!" I said with my mouth open and looking around.

"Alright put Nikki there, I'll call an elder." Robby said as he ran into the nest.

"You have multiple elders?" I asked the other pikachu, from which I still didn't know his name.

"Yeah, we have three elders. Uri is the leader." he said. "By the way, I'm Trey." he said as a raichu came out of the nest and walked over towards us.

"Robby said an pikachu arrived..." he said when Trey pointed to me. "Welcome! I'm Uri and I'm the leader of this colony." he said looked over me and sniffed me.

"I'm Maurice..." I said. "And that pikachu over there is Nikki, but she hasn't been awake since our accident..." I said.

"Accident?" he said. He looked at Nikki and then looked back at me. "What do you mean by accident?"

"We had an car accident about an hour ago..." I said.

"An hour ago?" Uri said. Is that... Like a sun or something?" Oops. I forgot that this colony doesn't understand human time.

"Nevermind." Uri said. "You must be hungry. Come inside, we'll take care of her." he said as he mentioned me to follow him. He went back inside the nest and I followed him. I changed into pikachu-mode and automatically found my way inside the nest. There were corridors and tunnels everywhere and in every direction. At one point we even took three 8-way intersections within a couple of seconds.

I followed the raichu towards a room deep inside. If I would fit in here as a human I would never remember how to get back to the surface, but my pikachu mind remembered everything perfectly and I didn't worry about a thing. At last we entered a big room where a couple of pikachu were busy with all kinds of things. Some were trying to open a can of diet coke, another was grooming some pichu, there were some pikachu chatting. This must be a main room. We went through the room and entered a smaller hole at the end of it. After entering the hole we went right, followed by an 180 degrees turn and another right. To prevent pokémon listening or something I guess. We entered quite a big room with some old human stuff and a bed of leaves and a pikachu.

"Savannah, could you leave us alone for a minute?" Uri said as he entered the room.

"Sure." she said as she looked at him and then at me.

"Hey handsome..." she said as she rubbed her cheek against me once before leaving the room, looking back at me as I gave her an uncomfortable look.

"Who was that?" I said, rubbing my cheek.

"My mate, Savannah." Uri said like it was the most normal thing on the planet. "Don't worry, she does that to anyone." he chuckled.

"Oh..." I said as I sat down and sighed.

"Alright, what brings you here? Robby said you're from Lukas' colony." Uri said as he sat down as well and offered me a berry.

"Well, I..." I said. "Can you keep a secret?" I asked.

"Yes, I can." the raichu said.

"Well, you know that human Maurice in Lukas' colony, don't you?" I said.

"Yeah, I know him. He's pretty crazy for joining a pikachu colony but he's a nice guy. They say he learned pikachu language. That would be pretty crazy." Uri said.

"Well, I am Maurice." I said as I looked down.

"Yes, you told me. You guys have the same name." Uri said.

"What? No, I am Maurice. The human Maurice..." I said.

"You are... Are you alright?" Uri said. "You're a pikachu, not a human."

"I know...!" I said. "But Team Rocket changed me into a pikachu!"

"Wait, what...?" Uri said. "I don't understand. Tell me everything." he said as he pulled a questionable head. I told him my story. From the part of the pokéball that sucked me in and the part where Team Rocket changed me into a pikachu to the part where I crashed and was found by Robby and Trey. Uri listened to me all the way. His eyes were closed and he nodded every now and then.

"I believe you..." he said when I finished. "I'm old and experienced enough to see that you don't talk like a pikachu. You talk different and you know things I don't even understand. We know there is a Team Rocket base somewhere around here. We have seen grunts gathering pokémon around the forest, including some of our own species and some of our colony members."

"Your colony as well?" I asked.

"Yes, they seem to gather the pikachu from all around Kanto. If they can find some - they will capture them and send them over to this place." he said. "You are the second pikachu that I speak to that escaped their hideout. One of our colony members actually escaped as well when he was moved. But he escaped because they were lacking security. He simply ran away from them and never saw them again. He found us and asked if he could stay and he has been here ever since." Uri said as he looked at me.

"Oh... But how you know they are from all over Kanto?" I asked.

"Because they weren't from colonies around here." Uri said. "I'm the leader of this colony and I know all other colony smells. They didn't have one smell I knew. That means they were not from here."

"Alright..." I said. "But how'd you know they didn't have those smells? Were you there?" I asked.

"Uhm..." he said, feeling uncomfortable.

"I was the pikachu that escaped. I evolved quite fast after that." Uri said as he looked down and hung his ears. "I'd rather not speak about that. My time with Team Rocket was not very pleasant." he added.

"Oh..." I said, surprised Uri didn't tell me earlier. "But what did they do with you? Did they change you... As well?" I said as I looked at him.

"No. I was a pikachu when I got there and I was a pikachu when I escaped." he said. "But as I said, I'd rather not talk about it."

"Oh, alright then..." I said, thinking about another subject.

"Where are we right now?" I asked.

"Inside my room. But you probably mean something different." Uri chuckled, clearly happy that I changed the subject. "We are close to Viridian City. That's the nearest place where humans live. You said you wanted to go to the pokécenter with Nikki, didn't you?" he asked.

"Yes... She needs help. And I do too, this plastic is sticking in my skin and if I remove it blood will come out..." I said. "Where is Nikki now anyway?" I asked.

"Probably in one of our empty rooms." Uri said. "I'll ask Robby and Trey where they put her. She didn't look very well."

"I want to go to the center before dark..." I said. "I hope I can somehow contact professor Oak about all this... I hope he knows what to do."

"Professor Oak?" Uri asked.

"Professor Oak is a pokémon professor somewhere near Pallet Town." I said. "I did this experiment with him. And I can now officially call this an out-of-hand experiment." I said as I sighed. Uri tilted his head and placed a paw on my shoulder.

"No worries, life as a pikachu isn't that bad." he said.

"I know, but I prefer being a human." I said as I felt my eyes went wet a bit. However, I managed to prevent myself from crying.

"Alright. So we have to get you to a pokécenter." he said. "Luckily it's not far from here. About one winter ago, they managed to blow it up somehow. They rebuild it close to the town edge, near the entrance to the forest. It's a short walk from our colony. I'll ask Robby to guide you there.

"Thanks... I'd really appreciate that." I said. Uri looked at me.

"You are CERTAINLY not a pikachu." he said. "You appreciate that? Really? What kind of word is that?"

"A word that says you're thankful for something." I said as I tilted my head.

"Oh, like that." Uri said as he gave me a thinking glare.

"Whatever." he said when he stood up and walked outside the room. "Let's go, if you want to be at the pokécenter before dark you should go now."

I stood up and followed Uri through the colony. Somewhere halfway we walked into Trey. After asking, Trey pointed us to a room where Nikki was. She was close to the entrance of the colony.

"Alright guys, help Maurice get her out of the colony." Uri said.

"Help her get out? We just got her in here!" he replied surprised.

"Who told you to get her in there?" I asked.

"Uhm..." Trey said.

"Exactly." I said as I rolled my eyes. "Come on." After a minute or so we were back outside with Nikki.

"Alright, Robby, Trey." Uri announced. "You're gonna point Maurice towards the pokécenter in Viridian."

"Viridian?" Robby asked. "You mean that place humans live?" he said as he pointed his paw towards the forest, probably in the direction of Viridian.

"Yes. Make sure he gets there in one piece. Nikki needs help from Nurse Droid." Uri said.

"Nurse JOY." I said. "She's called nurse Joy. But I need to get to her indeed."

"You are talking weird..." Trey said as he looked at me.

"Ignore the weird talk and take the guy already." Uri said. "If he wants to get there before dark, he needs to hurry." he added as we looked at the air. The sky was still blue, but you could notice that the sun was slowly going down. Night wasn't far away.

"Before night? We should get going then." Robby said.

"Let's go!" Trey said.

"Maurice, see you again. Come and visit us when you..." Uri said as he hesitated for a short time. "Well, you know. Come and visit." he said with a wink.

"I sure will." I said as we shook our tails as a greeting before Uri went back inside the colony.

"Alright guys, let's go." Robby said as he and Trey carried Nikki. We walked towards the colony edge and passed the pichu playground. As soon we came past it some pichu came running up to us. They gathered around Robby and begged him to play with them.

"Sorry, I can't..." he said. "We have to get Maurice to a pokécenter or something..."

Some pichu seemed sad.

"You always play with them?" I asked.

"What? Yes, I do. I'm one of the guards but we also play with them. The guards at your colony probably don't do that, but we don't have as much pikachu so we do multiple tasks." he said.

"Well, I'm a baby-sitter at my colony. I can't seem why playing for a couple of minutes would hurt..." I said as I took a step forward and started playing with the pichu by nosing into the fur of one of the pichu. They forgot Robby and turned their attention to me. It felt so good not to be stared at. Not to be a 'big bad human' that joined the pikachu colony. So nice to just play with pichu that really see you as someone of their own. As a human, the pichu also saw me as a great playmate, but it was certainly different. They still knew I wasn't a pikachu and that I wasn't really supposed to play with them. This really stopped getting a real bond with them. They were nice, I was nice, and we liked each other, but it stopped a real integration into the pikachu lifestyle. Now I was a pikachu, this last obstacle was also gone. My instinct told me to play with them and that was exactly what I did.

"Hey, you wanted to reach that pokécenter thing before dark, didn't you?!" Robby said.

"Yeah, I'll be right there..." I said as I played shock tag with three pichu at once. They touched their cheeks and sparked shortly and then giggled because it tickled them.

"Come on Maurice... We need to go!" Robby said.

"Yeah, I'll come." I said as I broke the game and went over to Nikki, Trey and Robby.

"Let's go." I said as I waved to the pichu. They all smiled happily and imitated me.

"What are you doing...?" Trey said.

"Waving goodbye...?" I said as Robby and I took Nikki and carried her away from the colony.

"Waving?" Trey said, pulling a surprised face.

"Yeah, waving. How do you say goodbye then?" I asked.

"Well uhm... I don't know... We rub our noses when we go away from our mate, but that's about it." he said as he held his paw behind his head and looked to the sky, thinking hard.

"Ah, I should remember that one." I said.

"You're weird." Trey said as he shook his head and walked after us.

The walk through the forest didn't take that long, but it took long enough for the sky to turn dark. Thanks to our pikachu vision, which was much better at night, we made it to the edge of the city without any problems, if you ignore the fact that I tripped almost five times, confusing my paws and feet when I changed from pikachu to human mind.

"Alright..." Robby said. "The healing building is over there. You see that building there?" he said as he pointed to a building.

"Yes, I do." I said.

"That's the building you're heading to. What was it called again?" he asked.

"Pokécenter." I chuckled. "It's marked with a huge P."

"A pee? You gotta pee?" Trey said as he and Robby placed Nikki down. They both had carried her the last part, so I had energy to make it to the pokécenter. The pikachu sometimes were very bright when it came to survival, but when it came to understanding humans they were hilarious.

"No, no. Marked by a P. A letter." I said.

"A letter? What is a letter?" Robby asked. I sighed and laughed.

"Never mind. You guys won't understand." I said.

"And me neither..." I thought after that, when I realised that I couldn't understand letters either. Somehow I still understood them but somehow I was unable to recognize them. I swear that I could see the 'M', the first letter of my name, on the keyboard. But when I pressed it Shawn read something entirely different. It confused me a bit, but I decided not to put too much attention to it.

"I'm sorry we can't go further, but it's way too dangerous for us there. I don't want to be caught and I'm kind of scared for the human city." he said.

"I understand, don't worry. Thanks for bringing me here." I said. "See you later, I think we'll see each other again at Lukas' colony." he smiled as he offered me his tail as greeting. I shook it.

"Certainly..." I chuckled as I also greeted Trey by shaking tails. Almost like humans, but also not.

"It's down that alleyway, if I'm right." Trey said as he pointed to a dark alley. "Just go around the corner and you're fine."

"Alright, alleyway to that building." I said as I pointed to the pokécenter.

"Yup. Well, see you around, we'll meet again at your colony!" Robby said as they turned around and left for their colony. I watched them disappear into the vegetation and turned around. I was kind of concerned with Nikki. She hadn't woke up since a couple of hours and I badly wanted Nurse Joy to look at her. And I also wanted this plastic out of my fur. It was still itchy, although not thinking about it made the feeling go away. Now I was thinking about it, it started to itch immediately. I grabbed Nikki and carried her on my back. I walked out of the vegetation and stepped on the sidewalk. The concrete actually hurt a bit under my paws. The small stones poked into my feet. It wasn't too bad. I made my way to the edge of the sidewalk.

I wanted to cross the street when a car appeared and roared past me, barely missing me. My human mind kicked in.

"ALWAYS, ALWAYS LOOK BEFORE YOU CROSS A ROAD!" it said on a angry, teaching tone.

"Alright alright..." my pikachu mind responded. I looked left and right. Not a car in sight. Perfect. I quickly crossed the road with Nikki on my back and walked into the alley. Just a small three hundred meters and I had reached my destination.

"Over 150m... Turn left." I mumbled, as if I was a navigation. I shook my head when I realised that my human side was playing tricks on me. Then there was some sound from the litter bin at the side of the alley. I looked at it when I saw some trash move that was piled up next to it. The trash rumbled when a raticate came out of it and looked at me.

"Hey! What are you doing here?" he said.

"What?" I said.

"What are you doing? This is my alley, and nobody enters my alley without my permission!" he said on an aggressive tone when two ratata also appeared from the trash and stood next to the raticate.

"I don't see your name written on it." I said.

"Are you trying to play tricks on me?" he answered and before I realised it, the raticate hit me with a quick attack. The impact felt like hitting a brick wall. I wasn't trained at all as a pikachu. I flew a couple of meters and landed on my belly. I grunted.

"And what's this?" he said as he approached Nikki, who I dropped as I was attacked.

"DON'T YOU DARE TO TOUCH HER!" I said, sparking my cheeks dangerously and standing in fighters stance.

"Oh my, is this your mate?" he said on a attacking tone as I charged up some electricity when the two ratata appeared in front of me.

"Don't want me to... TOUCH... her?" he said as he touched her tail and pulled hard. Nikki yelped a bit. So she was consciousness! The raticate looked at her and pulled again.

"HEY! STOP THAT!" I shouted at him, and I launched a quick attack. The ratata didn't expect this and I shot right past them towards - what I guessed was - their leader. I didn't know how, but I attacked the raticate with quick attack. I hit him spot on - he flew against the wall of the alley and landed on the floor. He growled at me when both ratata also stood in fighters stance. I stood before Nikki and raised my tail as high as I could to look intimidating. I growled back as I learned from Lukas. The ratata came quite close to me. I gave them a very firm glance and growled dangerously. To my surprise, they took a couple of steps back, but the raticate didn't. He came running for me with a bite attack.

I dodged the attack and the raticate ran right past me. He slid to a stop and immediately did a quick attack. Thanks to my pikachu senses my response was fast enough and I jumped out of the way again. Instead of attacking me, the raticate now ran for Nikki. After he missed me, he attacked Nikki instead. His quick attack hit spot on (not that complicated with a non-moving target) and Nikki slammed against the wall where she remained motionless. The raticate looked at me with an evil grin and slowly walked over to Nikki. I also tried to get to her, to attack the raticate. But my way was blocked by the two ratata.

"Get outta my way!" I shouted when I released a thundershock out of nowhere. Probably because I was angry. Both ratata did a step backwards again, since the thundershock completely missed target. I now knew they weren't that strong. The raticate was still walking over to Nikki. He was readying his teeth to bite her, probably somewhere where she would not survive it. This kind of panicked me, but I got a plan ready. I sparked my cheeks dangerously. One of the ratata ran for me to attack me, and I responded with an thundershock. He jumped for me but got hit before he could reach me. He fell to the floor and needed some time to get up. In that short time I already reached him and using my claws, I clenched his neck with my nails. They pierced through his fur and through his skin much easier than I expected. The ratata made a cry before his body spasmed a couple of times. I jumped away from him. He remained there, making unpredictable movements and crying his species name before he sank to the floor and remained motionless. I looked at the other ratata, who had just witnessed the murder of his companion, telling him that he could expect the same if he would try to stop me. He took a step back and looked at the raticate, before he ran away through the alley. The raticate had turned around and noticed the cries from one of his nationals, just before he reached Nikki.

"NO!" he said. "You will pay for that!" he said as he turned around and tried to kill Nikki with his teeth. I used quick attack and lightening fast I made my way over to him and hit him before he could do anything. The raticate flew away and landed right on his paws. He looked at me and gritted his teeth before he attacked me again, running for me very fast and hitting me with a nasty bite attack. I yelped when he hit me and I tried to break loose, but he kept biting down, causing me more pain. I tried to break loose when my human mind kicked in instead of my pikachu mind. It was like the world paused around me.

"DON'T PANIC!" it said. "Panic and trying to break loose won't help you, only make things worse! Think about what's the best thing to do! Thundershock the hell out of him!" it said. "Or wait, can you do thunder?"

My pikachu mind responded. "Yes, I can do thunder."

"Then stop trying to break free and do a thunder attack! Fry the bastard!" my human mind said as I returned to the fight. My pikachu mind stopped trying to break free. It looked at the raticate, who looked back with an evil grin and bit into my leg again, which he had managed to grab.

My cheeks sparked. My mind was focussed on static electricity. My tail was raised as much as it could. My voice echoed through the alley. The raticate suddenly looked scared to death and just before he let go a massive thunder hit me from the clouds above me. The sound of thunder echoed over the entire city of Viridian and I closed my eyes. When I opened them, the raticate had fainted. His fur was smoking, much like Cammy when she was attacked by Tommy. But this raticate wasn't a pichu, that was used to electricity. This pokémon couldn't handle that. It was dead. I removed my foot from his mouth and stood on the floor.

"Ouch..." I mumbled as I was barely able to put weight on it. I gritted my teeth and went over to Nikki. She had a big wound on her belly from the quick attack. I looked at the wall. Looks like she hit some kind of sharp edge, because there was a blood trail on the wall. I grabbed her and stumbled over to the pokémon center, using all my strength to pull her with me. I looked back to the mess I had made. A small crater had formed on the place where I had done my massive attack. I saw some humans looking to the alley from their window, wondering what just happened. Thanks to the absence of streetlights in the alley they weren't able to see me. I should really check how strong I am for real, because my human mind still thinks I'm a helpless pikachu at level one, but in reality I think I'm kind of strong...

But not now, since I stumbled up the stairs towards the entrance of the pokémon center. Happily there weren't much people outside of it. After I made it up the stairs (it wasn't that long, but it was very wide) I walked over to the automatic doors. They opened for me and I stumbled into the pokécenter I had been working before I joined the pikachu. Two or three trainers were still awake. One didn't pay attention and another noticed us coming in. The third continued with his own business. I tried to make my way over to the counter. I didn't see Nurse Joy anywhere. I pulled Nikki with me when I suddenly saw a shadow dropping over me. I turned around lightening fast and saw one of the trainers. I immediately got in fighters stance. Nobody would touch either me or Nikki.

"Hey fella, are you alright?" he asked from high up. He didn't even crouch, he just stood there watching us. This intimidated me. I didn't like it, it scared me somehow. Now I really knew how it felt to meet a human as a pikachu. It was as scary as hell. I sparked my cheeks, telling him to back off from me.

"Don't get angry with me, I'm trying to help you!" he said as he stepped closer. I growled loudly and made more than clear he should get away. I was hurt, I didn't feel very comfortable, and I was threatened by some crazy guy.

"The perfect mix to get attacked..." I heard my human mind saying. I sparked my cheeks once more, telling the guy to back off. He indeed backed off.

"Hey, don't get so aggressive with me." he said. I stopped sparking my cheeks but still growled.

"You're not getting yourself into trouble, aren't you?" I heard from behind me. A female trainer came walking from a corridor when I was focussing on the male trainer.

"What? No, I'm not! I'm trying to help this pikachu! He just came inside all by its own, pulling this other pikachu with him. But he tries to attack me." he said.

"Wow, they don't look well. Look at the female!" she said. "She doesn't look very good..."

"I know, that's why I'm trying to help!" the male said.

"Well do it right then!" she said.

"I'm trying, but you're disturbing me!" he shouted. The two started arguing about our situation and what was the right thing to do. I put my paws at my ears, trying to relief loudness as they were shouting louder and louder to prove they were right. I felt weak and I felt as if I was about to faint.

"STOP THIS!" I shouted after I was fed up. I heard a loud "PIKAAAAAAA" echo through the pokécenter. They both stopped and looked down. I felt weak, weaker than earlier.

"Get nurse Joy for me, will ya..." I said as I pointed to the counter.

"What does he mean?" she asked. The guy looked at the counter.

"Looks obvious, nurse Joy." he said as he walked over to the counter and pressed a button. Nurse Joy came walking out of her office.

"Hello and welcome to the Viridian City pokémon center! What can I do for you?" she said with her usual happy voice.

"Nurse Joy, there are two pikachu here who need your help. They don't let us come close to them. The male dragged the female inside, and the female looks bad." he said as he pointed at me. Nurse Joy looked at us and walked around the counter. She saw me, holding Nikki in my paws and looking at her.

"Oh my! What's this!?" she said as she crouched near me. "Oh good lord, the poor thing! Did you came here to bring her?" she asked me. I nodded my head. She picked Nikki up and brought her over to the counter. There she carefully laid her down on a cushion. The female gently grabbed me (I was too tired to resist) and placed me on the counter as well.

"Alright, let me see… How are you doing..." Joy said. I pointed at Nikki and pushed her hands away.

"Don't push me away, I'm trying to help you." Joy said at her soothing voice. But I pointed at Nikki.

"She first, I'm feeling fine except that I'm tired." I said. Nurse Joy looked at Nikki.

"You want me to start with her?" she asked. I nodded. Nurse Joy smiled and put me down on a pillow before she turned her attention to Nikki. I could barely keep my eyes open now I know we were safe. But something else caught my attention. The television behind Joy. My eyes slowly shot wide open when I saw something familiar on the TV screen. Myself. My human self! A photo of me appeared on the TV with some words under it which I could not identify. I watched for a second when I realised this was my chance.

"That's me!" I said as I pointed to the TV. The male and female looked at me and then to the TV.

"What is it? You want to watch TV?" she asked.

"It's about that boy who disappeared..." the male said. "I really hope that they'll find him soon. They say he had joined a colony of pikachu, that looks awesome to me."

"But he's been missing for a while now, isn't he?" the female asked.

"Yes, he is. Maurice is gone for two weeks now." Nurse Joy said. "He worked here about one year ago and he's a very cheerful person, sometimes a bit idiot, but cheerful. He loved pikachu. They found his clothes in an hidden Team Rocket base, after they traced his phone around that area. They also found a load of pikachu there, including his own pikachu, Cammy. His parents brought her over here but she was perfectly fine, only a bit shocked..." she said, her voice getting a bit emotional.

"How'd you know all this?" the trainer asked.

"Because they police brought all pikachu over here for a checkup." Nurse Joy said. "I asked them if they found Maurice as well as soon I heard this were pikachu from the same Team Rocket base, but they told me they found clothes and nothing more."

I waved my arms and pointed at myself.

"I am Maurice!" I said.

"You know something?" Joy asked. I nodded my head.

"I am Maurice!" I said again. Nurse Joy sighed.

"Sometimes I wish I could understand pokémon. That would make life so much easier for me." she said. "Alright, I'm gonna work on this pikachu now, you take care of him and call me when something unusual happens with him. He'll be fine, but I wanna be sure he's watched. If you get tired, ask a chansey." she said.

"I'll try to fix him up as soon as possible, but she needs me more than he does." she said as she looked at Nikki.

"Alright, we will." the female trainer said.

"Thanks." Nurse Joy replied before she left with Nikki. Wondering how I could possibly tell the humans I turned into a pikachu, I tried to sleep. But then reality hit me - they were looking for a human. A human that did not exist. At least, not anymore... I panicked and thought about possible ways to tell them. To make them clear they needed to look for me a different way.

What... What if they couldn't find me...?

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><p><em>And that's it for now, until the next chapter! Review button is under here, press it and write what you think!<em>


	29. Feelings

_It's a me, Mari... Wait, wrong text._

_*ahem*_

_Hello everybody! Another chapter of Life as a Pikachu. As usual, thanks to Pichufan for beta-reading._

_What happens in this part is kind of... Sad... But... Well, go read it. You'll understand._

_Please leave your thoughts about the story in the review section!_

_NOTE: Sorry if you recieved a double update, my bad._

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><p>I didn't know how long I was asleep on that pillow on the counter of the pokécenter, but it was still night when Nurse Joy woke me up. Grumpy and tired I looked at her when she lifted me and brought me over to a treatment room. There she looked at my wounds.<p>

"Gosh, you also have that plastic in your fur, just like your mate." she said. I sighed and nodded in pain. As soon I realised that there was plastic in my skin, it started to irritate again. It itched badly and it stung into my belly.

"Let's get rid of that first." she said as she got some equipment. "It really seems to bug you."

She got the plastic out of my fur. This took quite some time because there was a lot of the stuff in my skin. She had to take care of every wound that it caused. Every time she removed it, it hurt me. I whined in pain when she removed another piece. When most of the plastic was removed, blood would seep out of the wounds. Just a bit, but it was annoying. Nurse Joy cleaned me from all the blood and then focused on my leg. She checked my leg with some white thing… Oh right… She checked my chip.

"Good, you're chipped. We'll track your owner in no-time." she said. I shook my head violently when she said that.

"What? You don't want to go back?" she asked on a stern tone. "They might be worried sick about you and her." she said.

"No, they aren't." I said while shaking my head.

"You have the same owner, you know that?" she said. I nodded yes.

"And you don't want to go back?" she said. I shook my head violently again.

"Hmmm… Did he treat you well? Did you run away?" she said. I sighed and shook my head again.

"No, she didn't." I said as I looked down. "And I just want to be back to human."

"Oh, no worries. I'll see what I can do for you. We sometimes receive pokémon that ran away, and they usually end up pretty well. So no worries, OK?" she said. I nodded before she forced me to sit down. Then she checked my leg again. The bite from the raticate had caused a bad looking fleshwound. She looked at it.

"That doesn't look too bad." Nurse Joy said. "But you'll have to stay for a couple of days with that."

A couple of days? That was fine with me. Maybe I could convince her to get Oak here. After Nurse Joy cleaned my wound she carried me over to a tub and cleaned me. Being washed and groomed actually was really enjoyable. Too bad I was too tired to really enjoy it. She then placed me on the counter, dried me and got a hair dryer to dry my fur as well (a towel didn't dry me entirely) before she bandaged my leg and brought me to a room where Nikki was. Nikki was in a bed, asleep safe and sound. Nurse Joy put me inside another bed, the one next to her. There were four bunk beds, in each corner one. Nikki was on the one close to the door. I jumped from my bed, jumped in her bed and quickly dove under the blankets with her. I snuggled myself next to the female. My pikachu mind was telling me to. I didn't know why, I just needed to sleep next to her tonight.

"You wanna sleep with her?" Nurse Joy whispered. "Well, that's fine with me. Good night." she said as she ruffled through my fur, headed out and closed the door.

I looked at Nikki. I had to protect her. She also had been a human, even though she had forgot she was one. Maybe it wasn't too late… Maybe she still could return to her human state. I hoped for the best. I had to get a plan to get to Oak… I needed to get to anyone that could proof I was Maurice and not an ordinary pikachu. Someone that I knew pretty well and that wasn't too far away… Pallet was not that far from Viridian. We probably had to sleep in the forest for a night, but it wasn't that far. Then I suddenly remembered something. My parents lived in Viridian! Wondering how I could possibly forget that my heart beat frantically. I would visit my parents first. Hopefully I could make them clear that… That it was me… That it was their own son standing before them… But that was something I could think about later. For now, I was tired and I wanted to sleep… And with these thoughts, I fell asleep pretty quickly, next to Nikki.

I don't know how late it was the next morning when I woke up. I opened my eyes and felt Nikki next to me. I checked my surroundings and immediately could tell it was safe inside the pokémon center. Just as I expected. I stretched myself and shook myself. This made me feel more awake than before, as if I shook all the sleepiness away. I got from under the blankets and stood on the pillow where Nikki was on. I sniffed her and checked her. I pushed her with my nose gently. She didn't respond to me straight away, so I pushed her gently again. She stirred and groaned a bit. Then she opened her eyes and looked at me with a sleepy face.

"M… Mau… Maurice…?" she stuttered before she also stretched before groaning a bit and laying down.

"Nikki!" I said as I tried to prevent her from laying down. She shook her head and got down on the bed.

"What… What happened? And where are we?" she said. "The last thing I remember is that we were in the car and that it tipped over… And I remember something strange… Something… That said weird things to me…" she said.

"We… We had a car crash." I said. "We were thrown from the car because it crashed and the car burned to the ground. Luckily our cage also broke and we were thrown away from the car. You didn't move and you were unconscious, so I pulled you away from it." I said.

"Fire? Explosion?" she said, scared by the words. "What about Faia?"

"Faia didn't make it out on time…" I replied, looking away from her.

"But… Did… Did she… Die?" she asked.

"Yes." I said. "She couldn't get out on time. I think she was also unconscious."

Nikki sighed.

"She looked nice to me…" she said as she got up, didn't stretch and walked a couple of steps before she looked around.

"We are at the Viridian Pokémon Center." I said.

"Pokémon Center?" she replied, pulling a questionable face.

"A place where injured pokémon can heal." I said. "Nurse Joy helped you. She runs the center."

"OK…" she said. "But how could the car…" she said as she shook her head and closed her eyes. "It's so confusing and it sounds scary!"

Ssshhhhh, don't panic…" I said as I got close to her and rubbed my cheek against hers. She looked at me and sighed again.

"I didn't get you here to panic. I got you here so you could get healed." I chuckled.

"But… Where is the car then?" she replied.

"It's gone. It burned." I said.

"But… We were going to… Somewhere…" she said.

"Not anymore." I replied, smiling at her.

"But… What are we going to do then…?" she said.

"Uhm…" I said as I looked upwards. "I don't know yet, but we're not going to Team Rocket at least."

"Team Rocket?" she replied.

"Faia was part of an evil organisation called Team Rocket. They use pokémon for their evil plans, they abuse them for their own good. We were two experiments, two experiments to see if humans could be changed into pikachu." I said.

"Silly, you keep saying that." Nikki chuckled. "You're a pikachu, not a human." she said as she nuzzled my nose with hers.

"By the way, how far did you go to get here? I guess it's was dark when I was asleep, so it must have been quite far." she chuckled.

"Well… I dragged you across the forest and then I dragged you across the city for a while and then we were here…" I said as I thought about it.

"And I remember something with a raticate." she said. I looked at her with a surprising stare.

"You know? But how do you know?!" I asked.

"Well, I was waking up and I felt really crazy, like I was sleeping on that floor back at that thing we came from with the car, and then I remember being hit by something and I heard you shouting something. And I remember seeing a raticate walking up to me before I fainted…" she said. "It really hurt…"

"I didn't know you were awake then…" I said.

"Barely." she said. "But what happened?"

I explained Nikki from start to finish what exactly happened. That I met some other pikachu and that I dragged her towards their colony with them. That I took her towards the pokémon center and that I got into a fight with a raticate and his rattata. And also that they hit me. I showed her my leg, which was bandaged.

"And that's about it…" I said as I looked at her. She looked back at me.

"Well… Thanks…" she said as she smiled and all of a sudden hugged me.

"Thanks for saving me, could have died back there." she said as she broke the hug and smiled and purred at me. "You know, I think you and I could be good mates…" she said as she rubbed her cheek against mine and grabbed both my paws in hers. I was a bit surprised by this sudden turn of events. Inside me, everything was shouting to accept this once in a lifetime offer. My pikachu side must have almost exploded, but my human side told me not to do it. Not until later. If I would be stuck as pikachu forever, I could always consider it.

"Well… Uhm… Thanks… I think…" I said nervously as I blushed heavily. "Maybe… Maybe later, I'll think about it. But… But first… First I wanna get back to my family…" I said. Nikki looked at me with questionable face.

"Family? We could have one." she purred. I blushed even harder, trying to find an excuse not to mate with her, because it was more than clear what she wanted.

"Not yet." I said firmly, smiling at Nikki after I had a strong interference with my human side (my pikachu side was quite mad, but it accepted my human side for now).

"Alright then!" Nikki said, also smiling and purring. "Let's find your family then."

"I'd like to go and search them right now, but we're in a pokémon center and as far as I know I still can't walk normally." I said as I showed her my leg. "And you aren't completely healed either. You also have bandages on your belly." I said. Nikki looked at the bandages on her belly and sighed.

"They itch really bad. I wished I could get them off…" she said as she used her paws to pull the things away. But her paws were too short and she changed to her feet. She scratched with her feet and started to get the bandages off.

"No, stop! Stop!" I said as I stopped her.

"Why? It itches badly…" she replied, continuing what she was doing.

"If you get them off, you'll get new ones that will have to be on there even longer!" I said. Nikki still didn't stop.

"Nikki, quit it!" I said as I stopped her feet.

"Why? It itches!" she said.

"Yes, but if you…" I said. I sighed. "Never mind, but please stop doing it, you're only making things worse." I said.

"Oh… Well, alright then, if you say so, sweetie…" she said.

Great. Now she had a crush on me.

Nikki and I recovered very fast. Nurse Joy care did help a lot. After Nikki and I recovered for two more days, we were able to leave the pokémon center, if not Nurse Joy had checked us in her computer.

"What's this…" she said as she received a warning from the system.

"Former Team Rocket owner?" she said. "It appears that your former trainer, Faia, was a member of Team Rocket." she said to us. "And… One more thing… Faia has died in a car crash…" she said as she looked at us, expecting us to be sad. I looked back at her with an expression that said I didn't really care about it. Nurse Joy gave me a glance before she returned to her computer.

"And that also means that you guys have to be reported to the police… I can't allow you to leave until officer Jenny has seen you." she said as she looked up the number of Jenny on her computer before dialing something on the video phone. Hoping that I could tell her that I was Maurice, I decided to wait for things to come. I had already tried to tell Joy that I was a human - that I was THE Maurice that had worked here. Joy hadn't understood anything of it. It was frustrating as hell. Nikki had watched me with interest when I was trying to make the human understand that I also was a human once.

"Why are you trying to tell people you're human?" Nikki had said. I had explained her that I was changed into a human and that she had been a human as well, but Nikki wouldn't take that. She just couldn't believe that she was a human once. It actually scared her a bit.

"Hello Jenny, I've got two positive matches from our system." I suddenly heard. Joy had Jenny were talking to each other by phone.

"I have two pikachu here that are former Team Rocket pikachu, according to the system. Their trainer died, apparently."

"Who was their trainer?" she said.

"Her name was Faia. There is no second name in the system." Joy said.

"Then I know who that was." Jenny said. "Horrible car crash. There was nothing we could do…" she said as she sighed. "I think these pikachu are member of the group we found earlier. These are currently at the shelter near our police station. I'll come and check on them. Do you have time today?" she said.

"Well, if you come now we could handle things immediately." Nurse Joy said.

"Alright, I'll see you in a couple of minutes." she said. Indeed a couple of minutes later Jenny was standing at the counter. Nurse Joy had locked us in a cage for the time being, to make sure we couldn't escape. Team Rocket pokémon tend to escape when others know they're part of the organisation to ensure they don't leak useful information towards the police.

"Yes, definitely. These are part of the same group." she said as she entered the room and watched us.

"Officer Jenny! It's me, Maurice!" I said. Officer Jenny ignored me.

"We already found a cage containing pikachu fur next to the van that crashed. It was broken and empty, we suspected these pikachu were moved to another location. We don't know why…"

"Have you found Maurice already?" Nurse Joy asked. Perfect. I waved my arms and pointed at myself.

"I am Maurice! I'm a human! You know me!" I said, almost shouting.

"What's the matter little guy?" Jenny said as she kneeled in front of our cage and looked me straight into the eyes. Quite scary, Jenny's glance pierced straight through everything.

"I'm Maurice!" I said as I slammed the cage door back and forth. "Why does nobody understand me! I'm not a pikachu, I'm a human and you're looking for someone that doesn't exist!" I shouted, knowing that this message wouldn't reach its destination. Even talking to the Chansey didn't work - they all thought I was crazy by now.

"Hey there, calm down you." Jenny said, not even pulling away at my aggression. I stopped and watched her with questionable face.

"We haven't found Maurice yet, but I'm confident that…" she said - not to me, but in general - before I interrupted her.

"I - AM - MAURICE!" I shouted again. "You already found me!"

"Hey, keep it down a bit, will you!" Nurse Joy said. "I don't like shouting pokémon. Please calm down a bit." she repeated as she soothed me a bit. She opened the cage for us.

"I think I can release them?" she said.

"Yes, they don't do harm." Jenny said. "Can you transfer them to the police shelter? We want to do some investigation on them before we're gonna put them up for adoption."

"Yes, I'll make sure these end up at the police." Joy said. "But did you find Maurice?"

"Well, we…" she said before I interrupted her again.

"That's me." I said. I could hear the words leave my mouth as "pika". Perfect. From now on I would say something or raise my paw as soon I heard my name. Maybe they would notice it… I was out of options. Nothing helped. I didn't have any other thing to communicate than my voice right now. Maybe later I could show her by different means… And if she didn't want to listen I would flee to Oak or my parents…

Jenny looked at me with an annoying glance.

"...we haven't found Maurice…"

"Pika."

"...yet but we are positive that we will find him. Team Rocket probably moved him towards another facility. We don't know which one, but his phone led us straight towards this facility and I'm sure Maurice…" - pika - "...is somewhere out there."

"If you only knew…" I thought.

"But do you have any clues?" Joy asked.

"Yes. We arrested everybody we could find inside there, and we're still busy interviewing everyone and finding out what they did. There worked over a thousand people in there. We also got our hands on some computers. These are all locked, of course, but we're busy trying to get through them. Maybe we can find data on there that will lead us towards other places of Team Rocket. We also found some maps that could lead us to some other Team Rocket buildings."

"I hope you find him soon…" Joy said.

"I do too. But he's been gone for over two weeks now and chances of us finding him are getting smaller and smaller…" Jenny said.

"If the interviews, the search and all the investigation lead to nothing… What am I supposed to do? I don't know where to look next…" she said.

"I am Maurice…!" I said again, this time more calm and more emotional. Nurse Joy saw this.

"Oh, come on, don't cry. You're out of the hands of Team Rocket now. If you healed up we'll find you a nice family or trainer that will take care of you." she smiled.

"Well, I'd be going." Jenny said. "I'll be expecting that you send them towards us." she smiled as we all went back towards the pokécenter main hall.

"Of course!" Joy smiled. "Good luck on the investigation."

"Thanks, I'll need it." Jenny said. And with that she left the building. Well, that was the biggest success ever… I managed to tell nothing and do nothing. My last hope faded a bit… I felt like some kind of stranger. Nobody understood me, the pokémon from the pokécenter thought I was crazy (chansy weren't that nice as you might think as human) and Nikki also doubted me.

"It's… I need to tell them somehow…!" I thought. "But how…"

Another day went by while I was figuring out things and ways to tell people I was actually the Maurice they were looking for. But the fact that I was a pikachu played on me. The pikachu mind took control more often and didn't want me to think about possible ways to get back to my human self. This made everything harder for me. It made thinking clearly harder as well.

One day later, we would be moved to the police station. I didn't know how it would happen, but since we were still assigned to our former owner we couldn't be trapped into pokéballs. This to my happiness, because I was afraid that putting me inside a pokéball would make the changes to my body permanent.

There was a female trainer that came and collected us. We weren't caged this time. Since I was a 'perfect pokémon', or rather a pokémon that didn't cause trouble even though I was believed to be feral, I didn't need to travel in a cage but on the shoulder of a trainer. Lucky me. Nikki could travel on the shoulder of the trainer as well. I already explained Nikki some basics and I explained her that I would try to escape during our move. She first didn't want to join me, but when she realised she would be at the police station without me she quickly changed her mind.

To make a long story short, we managed to escape by both thundershocking the trainer and run for our lives. We ran into the city and stopped somewhere in a park, hiding under some bushes.

"Alright, and what are we gonna do now?" Nikki said to me.

"We're gonna visit my home." I said.

"Your home? Is that something like a nest?" she asked.

"Yes, my parents live here somewhere." I said, looking around to see where I was. I got my location and we headed for my home. My house. My human house. After walking a couple of blocks we arrived at my home. I was almost saved!

"This is your nest?" Nikki asked when I stopped and watched the house.

"Yes, this is the place where I live." I replied before I got towards the door. I never felt so nervous in my entire life. How would they respond to me? I looked at the door and realised I couldn't reach the doorbell. Well, I probably could… I ducked and got ready to jump towards it. I jumped towards the doorbell and tried to press the button, but it failed. I tried again and another time, but both times failed.

"What are you trying to do?" Nikki asked me.

"I'm trying to ring the doorbell, so people know I'm here." I said.

"Doorbell?" she said with a questionable face when we both jumped when the door suddenly opened. There stood a man in the door opening. My dad.

"DAD!" I said happily. "It's me!"

"Dad? This is your dad?" Nikki asked when my dad looked down at us.

"What's this…?" he said. "What are you doing here?"

"Dad, it's me! Maurice!" I said while I stood before him with my paws out to cuddle with him.

"I don't know what you want, but I don't have time for you." he said. "If you want to play, go to the park and find yourself some children or something, they'll surely want to play with you." he said.

"Wh… What?" I replied.

"No, pulling a sad face won't help, I also don't have food for you." he said, his voice getting annoyed.

"But I'm your son! You're looking for me, I know!" I said.

"I don't have time for you, just… Just go away." he said before he closed the door in front of my nose.

"Are you sure this is your nest…?" Nikki asked after an awkward silence.

"Yes, this is my nest!" I said. "That… That was my dad…"

"Well, it didn't look like your dad…" Nikki said with a questionable face.

"BUT IT WAS MY DAD!" I said as I started to scribble against our front door.

"As soon they open the door you dash inside, got it?" I said. Nikki looked at me with a scared face, but she nodded. I kept scratching the door until it opened again.

"Why are you still… HEY!" my dad said as we both darted inside past his legs. He closed the door quickly and ran behind us.

"Get out! I don't have time for you right now!" he shouted as we ran across the hall and entered the living room. My mother was sitting on the couch and she looked at us entering the room and my father running in behind.

"What are they doing here…?" she said at my dad.

"They were at the door the first time and after I send them away they kept scratching the door…" my dad said as I jumped a chair in the room, waving my paws.

"I'm Maurice!" I said before I jumped away again, because my dad was trying to grab me. Nikki was hidden beneath the couch.

"Dad! It's me!" I shouted before I outran him and hid myself behind the same couch. He stopped his running and sighed.

"Please, don't chase them… I don't want you chase them around the living room… Lure them with some food or something…" my mom said on a sad tone.

"Please… Don't get upset…" he started.

"Yes I am getting upset! All this wouldn't have happened if he didn't join that stupid colony of pikachu! And these pikachu remind me of that. The police has still no clue where he is and I worried sick." she said, getting all emotional. "I wish I had never allowed it. Those pikachu destroyed him. He was almost like feral! Like a wild pokémon! I should have got him out of there when I got the chance. But I didn't." she said, burying her head in her hands. My dad sat next to her and patted her back and hugged her. She accepted it and cried. It broke something in me. Seeing my mother cry about me made me emotional as well, but I had to tell them I WAS their son! I got from under the couch slowly. My dad and mom looked at me.

"You happy now?" dad said, his voice also weak.

"Dad, please listen…!" I said. I knew he wouldn't understand. I looked around and saw a photo of myself. Bingo, that could be it! I jumped the table with my photo on it and looked at it.

"Hey, get down from there!" my mom said as she got up.

"Don't destroy the photo of my son!" she said as she came closer. I raised my paw to stop her.

"Wait!" I said as I turned around and stood next to the photo. My mother came closer, she didn't listen. I had to stop her. I growled fiercely and sparked my cheeks while I got into fighters stance. My mother stopped and my father got up quickly. Within the blink of an eye, he stood next to her.

"Don't you dare to attack us!" he said while looking at me with a death glare as he reached over to me to grab me. Me, scared of this move, jumped out of the way and pushed my own picture away with my jump. The picture and the holder fell down to the ground. The sound of breaking glass went through the room. My mom looked at the broken picture and then at me. She closed her eyes. I could see she was mad with me. My dad was mad as well. My mom grabbed the picture from the ground as I watched her. My dad looked at me and gave me an angry glare.

"Dad, it's me…!" I said as I pointed at the picture and then at myself. "I am your son, Team Rocket changed me into a pikachu!"

My mom and dad looked at me.

"I'll get the broom. I'm gonna sweep them out of the house." my dad said as my mom sat back on the couch. Uh oh. Problems ahead. My mom sighed deep and sad, and she sat back on the couch as my dad got out of the room and I heard him opening the door so he could chase us away from the house. I had to act quickly. I walked over to the couch and jumped next to my mom.

"Get away from me…!" she said angry and with a warning glare, readying a heavy book to slap me away.

"Mom, please..!" I said as I pointed at the picture. "It's me!"

My mom didn't budge. She still looked at me with an angry face. I jumped over to her. I wanted to show her that it was me, but something else happened. My mom screamed and slapped me with the book she was holding. I evaded the book just as my father entered the room.

"GET AWAY FROM MY WIFE!" he said. He must have thought I attacked mom, because he sounded very angry and because he came for me quickly. My mom pushed me on the ground quickly. I scrambled to my feet and jumped away just in time to evade a broom smashing into the ground.

"OUT, OUT, OUT!" he shouted as he slapped the broom next to my multiple times, while I evaded it.

"DAD, PLEASE!" I shouted, panicked because of the turn of events, running through the living room. "IT'S ME!"

All of this was without avail, because my dad continued to chase me.

"I think we'd better get out of here!" Nikki said from her hiding place. "He will kill you if you stay here!"

I ran across the room, chased by my dad. He tried to get me to the door.

"One more time." I thought. I jumped the couch again and made my way over to my picture. My mother was standing and trying to not get in the way of my dad. I grabbed my own picture and held it on front of me, hoping they would understand it. My dad did indeed stop and looked at me.

"Yes, you BROKE that!" he said. "NOW GET OUT!" he said as he slapped the picture from my paws and slapped the broom on the couch as I jumped out of the way again. No good, he didn't understand it. I wanted to come up with other things or possible explanations, but there was no way I could think one up while - SLAM - evading this broom that was trying to hit me!

"Get outside!" I shouted at Nikki. She sprinted for the door and I followed. My pikachu side wasn't really helping, it was panicked and it wanted to get away from here. It was sending strong waves of panic through my body that triggered me to flee whilst I didn't really want to flee. I ran into the hallway and ran to the door, chased by my dad. Nikki made it outside, and I would soon follow. I ran outside the door opening and thought I made it, but I felt my paw sticking to the doorstep. I tripped and landed just outside the house. My dad stood next to me quickly. With a firm glance and a quick sweep he hit me with the broom. I slid on the pavement with a painful groan and looked at my dad.

"AND STAY AWAY!" he said slowly and loud. I looked at him and felt tears building up quickly.

"But dad… I'm your son!" I cried hysterically, feeling some tears.

"YES, I KNOW IT HURTS! BUT YOU DESERVED NO LESS!" he said angry, before turning around.

"NO, WAIT!" I cried. The door slammed shut. My heart skipped a beat. I was just thrown out of my house by my own parents. I got up and felt tears flowing from my cheek. I went back to the door and scribbled against it again.

"OPEN THE DOOR!" I shouted. "Let me in, it's me! Maurice! You're not who you think I am!" I shouted as the door opened again and within the blink of an eye I got face-broomed. I felt backwards to the concrete before my father swept me from our front garden.

"I SAID STAY AWAY!" he said before he returned towards the door opening and stood there, watching me with an angry face.

"WELL, GO ON!" he said. Nikki helped me standing up. I looked at him with tears in my eyes.

"Dad, please…!" I started, but it was without avail. My dad took a step forwards, holding the broom dangerously. I took a step backwards before I turned around and ran away. After a minute or so I stopped inside a random bush and dove under it. Nikki followed quickly.

I was thrown from my own house twice by my own father, and they probably didn't want to know me. I felt alone and I felt abandoned. It felt like the whole world hated me, like everyone was against me. I lost it. I sat down and started crying.

About my family, which I would probably never see again.

About being a pikachu, which I now hated so much.

About being hurt, broomsticks hurt if you get hit.

About feeling miserable, because I felt abandoned and because my own father just told me to get out and stay away.

And about feeling helpless, because I didn't know what to do, where to go and why.

I cried very long. Nikki sat next to me and comforted me, but it didn't really work.

After a while I sighed and stood up. I knew what to do. I had to get to Oak. Samuel Oak would be my last hope. Maybe Lukas or Jack or Rosie could help me, if they believed I was Maurice. I didn't see or smell them at my parents home, so they must be at Oak's laboratory. After telling Nikki where I was heading, we set off. Nikki talked about mating and looking for a nest along the way, but I ignored it. She rubbed her cheeks against mine a couple of times. She smiled at me with a sweet smile, one that Scarlet gave me as well when I was human. I just smiled back and told her that I wanted to go to. Somehow it did cheer me up a bit. She told me that I was crazy for still believing I was a human, but she followed me anyway. Evading a couple of trainers every now and then, we headed towards route 1, the road towards Pallet Town.

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><p><em>Leave a review, please! The button is down there! Thanks for reading and I wish you a pleasant day! Next part will be more happy, promise... :)<em>


	30. Communication problem

_Hello everyone. Guess who's back after a very long time. First of all I'd like to apologize for the time this took. On the other side though, I finished my school with a good grade, so not writing certainly paid off. *chuckle*_

_To make up, I wrote you guys a huge-ass chapter. It's 18,000 words, about 3 times the size of an average chapter. I hope you guys like it. It was fun writing it. I'm wondering what you guys think about this, so please review. Without further ado, let's continue! Enjoy!_

_Oh, one more thing before I start. Merry Christmas and a Happy Newyear, if I don't post a new chapter before that._

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><p>"Hey… Maurice…"<p>

"Maurice…!"

"HEY MAURICE! WAKE UP!" Nikki said playfully as she pushed me on my back instead of my belly. I rolled over, sat up, shook my head and looked at her.

"Wutishapnin…" I blabbered while shaking my head again, this time waking up for real.

"Well, I'm hungry. Let's go find some food!" she said as she stood next to me and rubbed her cheek against mine. She walked out of our den and through a system of tunnels we both moved up to the surface. Pikachu and pichu were playing. We were at the pikachu colony I knew so well.

"Hey Maurice…!" some pikachu said, smiling at me. I smiled back. Nikki walked out of the colony and towards an apple tree just out of the colony.

"Could you get one for me?" she said in a cute way as she turned around.

"WOW, what happened to your belly?!" I said as I looked over it. It was huge, much bigger than I was used to.

"Uhm, are you okay?" she said as she looked at me with her head moving skew left and right as she watched me.

"Yes but… What happened at you…?" I asked again.

"Did you forget?" she said.

"Forget what…?" I said as I looked at her with a asking face.

"Maurice, please, don't do this. It's not funny." she said with a serious tone and face.

"I'm just asking what happened to you! Why are you so huge?" I said.

"Well, we mated and I'm getting pichu, remember?" she smiled as she moved closer and nibbled my ear.

"We… Wait, WHAT?!" I said. "But… But I'm a human, I wouldn't mate you…!"

"Did you forget or something?" Nikki said.

"Forget what?" I asked. Nikki sighed.

"You seem to forget a lot lately." she said, holding her paw behind her head. "We went to that Oak guy and you told him you were Maurice. He understood you after you tried for days and he showed you to your parents. They didn't believe him. He then called out Bill and some other people, but they were unable to transform you back to human being form, even after they tried it for a long time.

"What…" I said slowly, not believing what she said.

"Even though you didn't want to be a pikachu, you finally accepted that you'll never be a human again, and we both joined this pikachu colony. The pikachu seemed to know you already, Lukas was really happy to see you back. To make Oak able to track you and know you from the other pikachu, he gave you a collar. Look at it!" she said. I looked down at my neck. There was a red collar around my neck. I could see some numbers. Now that I knew it was there, I felt it. I was so used to it that I didn't feel it earlier.

"But…" I stammered.

"And then you finally gave in to your pikachu side and we mated and now we're getting pichu!" she said. "And the other pichu love you! You're a perfect babysitter and you're always cheerful!" she said. "The pikachu also love you and you're a perfect colony leader, together with Lukas!"

"But… No… I…" I said, not understanding anything. How in the world with my human mind still present and my human thoughts still here, could I have mated with her? How?! And why do I not have memories of that?

"Look, this happened before…" she said. "You've been back to your human state already for a while, but then you changed back to the Maurice I like and the Maurice that loves me…!" she said with a lusty purr. "Don't worry, you'll change back to a pikachu soon… It didn't last long the last time."

"No… No…" I said as I took a step back.

"Maurice, please…!" Nikki said, walking after me when I started walking - no - running back to the colony. I entered the colony. I stopped at the entrance of the looked around. Pichu playing, pikachu looked at me.

"Hey, Maurice!" one greeted before he dove into the nest. I looked around. Nikki came walking towards me.

"Maurice, please… We're gonna have pichu, don't act like this…!" she said, her voice pleading me to stop.

"No, I don't want to… To..." I stammered.

Nikki stared at me with a blank expression. A couple of pikachu around me stared at me as well.

"I don't want to take care of pichu, I don't want a mate, I want to go back home and…"

"And what?" Nikki said. "Try to turn into a human again? How could you possibly do that? Maurice, please, I'm your partner, I love you!" she said.

"You're not my mate…" I said, still in complete shock to the fact I was about to turn father of pichu. "I… I don't want to take care of pichu…" I said as I turned around and wanted to walk away. However, I was stopped by two pikachu that were watching our conversation. One bigger guard pikachu joined us.

"Yes, you're gonna take care of those pichu. She is your mate and you two mated. Everybody knows and everybody can smell that." he said. "You need to stay loyal to your mate." he said. All the pikachu from around me suddenly walked towards me, telling me to stay loyal to my mate.

"What… Get away…" I said, looking left and right as I was cornered by at least ten pikachu. I saw Lukas exiting the nest. "I don't need to stay loyal to my mate, I can mate whoever I want and leave if I want to, that's what pikachu do!" I said, panicked, when Lukas came walking over. He looked at me and at the scene.

"Maurice, things have changed around here. We stay loyal to our mates, you need to take care of the pichu." he said as he shook his head. The scene changed and I was suddenly inside the nest and in my den, watching Nikki giving birth as the scene changed again and I saw Nikki lying in the den with two pichu next to her, looking at me with a proud face.

"Aren't they beautiful - _beautiful - beautiful?_" it echoed through my head. More voices echoed through my head.

"_Things have changed… We stay loyal to our mates…."_

"_Maurice, I love you!"_

"_You're gonna take care of those pichu, you need to stay loyal to your mate."_

"_You finally gave in to your pikachu side and we mated…!"_

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" I shouted as I sat straight up and looked around. A den with me and Nikki, Nikki overcome with sleep and watching me with a sleepy and questionable face, her eyes half open. Rays of sun shining from the opening of the den.

"Whu… What?" she asked sheepishly.

It had all been a dream. My breath was quick. I jumped up and walked back, back from Nikki, against the dirt wall, looking at her. She was normal sized, clearly NOT pregnant and looking at me with sleep in her eyes. Nikki shook herself as I watched her like she was the scariest thing in the world.

This damn brain of me. Why does it have to work like this, why do I have to dream that I wasn't able to recover to my human state and that I mated with a pikachu? Although, it was quite logical since I couldn't get back to human state.

"Fuck this shit." I thought, looking at the dirt on the ground before shaking my entire body and looking at Nikki.

"What's the matter?" she said after she woke up.

"Nothing… Just… Just a nightmare." I said as she walked over to me and rubbed our cheeks together. She sparked affectionately and laughed at me when I jumped up.

"Nightmare?" she said. "Whatever. Shall we continue towards your professor guy?" she chuckled. "We're awake anyway. You said he had food and I'm hungry."

"Yes, let's do that… Let's do that…" I repeated as I was still breathing faster than normal as Nikki turned around and jumped out of the den and towards the sunlight. I jumped after her and we continued our way towards Pallet Town.

"Jeez, you were looking like I was pregnant…" she chuckled as I ran past her and she ran after me quickly.

**. . .**

Me and Nikki walked further along route 1 towards Pallet Town. The sun was slowly climbing higher in the air and warming up the ground we walked on. Yesterday, after a long walk over the route towards Pallet, we had settled down in a den that Nikki found. Honestly, we were going slower than I wanted to. Nikki was continuously trying to find spots where we could settle and start a family.

"Oh look Maurice, this would make a nice nest!" she said over and over, showing me dens, burrows and trees with hollow underground. The only thing I did was smile and tell her I wanted to go to Oak first before we could settle. A lie for my own good, so to say. And for her own, because we may be able to change her back to human form. I hoped for the best when I tugged her out of den number one hundred and one.

"Nikki, come on!" I said again while the sun went down. Getting to Oak wouldn't happen today. We both were getting tired, and we had to find a place to sleep. Within a couple of seconds Nikki found us another nest. Safe from predators and maybe trainers, we could sleep there for the night. After we got in and after we got down we down, we both fell asleep pretty quickly. Of course, after Nikki tried to get me to mate her again and after she asked me again if we could settle here. After a short and firm "no" Nikki stopped and gave up... At least for now.

But now, we were on our way again and it was early in the morning. It wouldn't take long before we would reach Pallet, we could already see the windmill Oak had right next to his laboratory in the distance.

"Look Nikki! That's where we're going!" I said, pointing at the windmill.

"What…?" she said, looking in the distance.

"The windmill!" I said.

"Windmill?" she said. "What's that?"

"The turning thing that keeps spinning rounds." I said, quickly translating it into pikachu-friendly language. Thanks to my ability to switch between pikachu and human that was no problem.

"We're heading to another human house? I thought we were going to some pikachu colony." she said, nuzzling me with her nose.

"No, I'm a human, you know that." I said, smiling and nuzzling her back playfully.

"Silly, you're a pikachu. But whatever!" she said as rolled her eyes up and ran after me, because I took off towards the laboratory. I was almost there! I could almost smell Oak from here…

**. . .**

He walked back and forth between the opening of the door and his computer screen. Worried about the boy he'd sent off towards a colony of pikachu. Two weeks. Two whole weeks he was gone. The iron table in the middle was empty, except some papers and a pen, containing some notes he made earlier. He stopped a while and looked at the notes. After almost two minutes of staring he actually read the notes. The notes were about something different than Maurice. He walked up to the table and looked at the papers. He ordered them on the table before walking over to something in the corner of the room. Inside was a pikachu. He stood next to the incubator and looked over the female that was inside.

After being beat up by Team Rocket trying to defend herself from the evil organisation, she was out. She didn't wake up, even after giving her medical treatment and giving her additional electricity. Oak feared for her life. The situation got worse every day, and about a week ago they even had to put her on artificial respiration. Not only that, since last week her heart was failing her as well. The defibrillator had saved her life a couple of times already, but Oak wasn't sure if this was gonna last long. He opened the incubator and felt her body. It was still warm, but he wasn't sure this was because she was generating heat or because of the temperature inside the device that was meant to keep her alive. He slowly moved his hand across her head, right between her ears. The place she loved so much.

"Come on… You need to wake up… We don't know what is wrong with you… Even Nurse Joy doesn't know…" he said softly.

He sighed, closed the device and walked back towards the table. Maurice' parents would be here in the late afternoon to talk about stuff with him and Officer Jenny. Because of the information Oak had about Maurice and the knowledge the parents had about their son, this could sometimes lead to interesting results. At the same time she would come to give them a update on how things were going with the investigation on Maurice' whereabouts. The professor sighed again.

"Where IS he?" he commented on himself. "He can't be GONE just like that…"

**. . .**

We ran over towards the windmill. We were getting closer to Oak now! He would surely understand me! If he wouldn't, then I could ask Jack and Rosie to translate it for me. They know how to deal with humans better than I do, that's for sure. I would make Oak understand me. If he didn't want to understand, I would get the entire pikachu colony here, if I had to.

"Are we almost there?" Nikki said from behind me. I stopped when we reached the town limits from Pallet. We were around 500 meters from our destination.

"Almost." I said, panting a bit from running for almost five minutes flat. Nikki panted as well and we both walked further on our feet only. There were no people in sight, they were probably inside their houses and still sleeping. It was summer, after all, so it was light early. I had no clue how late it was and if Oak would even be at his laboratory. I hoped that he would be here, but if he wasn't it probably wouldn't take long. We walked towards the path leading to the front door. After a minute or so we both stood for the door.

"And now?" Nikki said. "I don't see a bell like last time."

"No, Oak has an intercom… How do Jack and Rosie enter this…" I said as I wondered how Jack and Rosie usually entered the building.

"Let's try this." I said as I start scribbling the door just like I did with the door home. I knew that this made noise inside because Jack, Rosie and Cammy usually did this when they couldn't manage to open a door that they wanted to get through. Usually our door leading towards our garden. Scribbling made some weird-kind-of sound that you don't hear for minute and then suddenly notice. I hoped that someone was here… I looked through the glass of the door but saw nobody. The lights in Oak's room were on though, that room was immediately to the right after you entered. I stopped scribbling and bonked my paws against the glass.

"Open up…!" I said, getting nervous that there would be nobody here when suddenly the door opened and Oak appeared. He looked around and then spotted us. He walked over to the door and opened it for us.

"Sam!" I said, using his short name before I shot inside.

"Whoa, hello there, little guy." he said when I hugged his legs.

"What are you doing?" Nikki asked as she looked at me with a face like I was crazy.

"Being happy." I said when I darted inside Oak's room and jumped the table.

Oak shook his head a bit and followed. There were regularly pikachu coming at his lab, mainly Jack and Rosie with their pichu and of course Cammy and Scarlet, but also some others. Since I joined the pikachu colony a couple had shown up here, Oak had told me once. Even though I told them to stay at their colony.

"Alright, and who might you be?" Oak asked when Nikki also jumped the table and we both watched him.

"Oak it's me!" I said way to happy. I should know that he couldn't understand me. Nikki also looked at me with the same conclusion.

"Maurice, he cannot understand you, just like all the others. Why do you still try? It's useless." she said as she hugged me. "You're a pikachu, and not a human." she continued as she nuzzled my cheek with her nose.

"He will." I said as I gently pushed her away. "He must, otherwise… Well, he must and he will." I said.

"Whatever." Nikki said as she broke the hug and looked at Oak.

"Are you two pikachu from the colony?" Oak asked. "If you're looking for Maurice, he's not here." he said kind of sad. "There have been others already and he's still gone. I don't know where he is." he said. "Lukas should be coming soon… He usually comes in the morning…" he added softly.

"Colony?" Nikki asked while looking at me.

"Yes, colony." I said. "We're not from the colony." I said as I shook my head. "Well, actually I am but she isn't." I said as I pointed at Nikki and me.

"And you're mates?" Oak said. Nikki nodded violently and I shook my head violently as well. We both looked at each other. Nikki looked kind of disappointed and amused at the same time. I just looked annoyed and amused as well. Oak laughed.

"Mates to be." he chuckled when Nikki's belly grumbled. Oak looked at her.

"Did you came for food?" he asked. Nikki nodded immediately at hearing the word food. I shook my head when my belly grumbled as well.

"You're a terrible liar." Oak chuckled as he walked over to the closet and opened it, revealing bags of pokéchew.

"I should stop giving these pikachu food, they'll keep coming back to me." he said as he made a mental note to stop feeding most wild pikachu. He filled the feeders that were usually meant for Jack and Rosie and placed them on the table.

"Here, because I'm in a good mood…" he said as he didn't look too happy. I could also feel that he didn't feel very well. I decided to take this slowly and not like all the other times. Even though my name was mentioned, I didn't respond to it like I would normally. But now, there were more important things, eating for example. We both didn't eat for almost a day now and we both jumped the feeders and started eating. Oak looked at us for a while before he walked away and walked over to something glassy and looked inside it. He stared into it. I could see him moving around because I was standing on the right direction around my feeder. I wondered what he was looking at, that thing wasn't here as far I could remember. After a minute or so my curiosity won it from my hunger. I stood on my hind legs and watched him. Oak looked inside the glassy thing and then looked at me.

"You had enough?" he asked kindly when he saw me watching him. I left my food for what it was and jumped down the table and walked over to him. I couldn't see what was in the thing from under, so I climbed his lab coat and stood on his shoulder. I looked inside the glassy thing. My heart stopped.

It was an incubator. And not only that - a pikachu was inside there, connected to all kind of wires and even to a heart monitor.

"Scarlet!" I shouted softly. I never expected her to be in there. In amazement I almost fell from Oak's shoulder. Oak stopped me from falling down by putting a hand in front of me. I bumped into his hand and quickly regained balance.

"Hey there, don't fall." he chuckled.

"Scarlet…" I mumbled as I watched the female inside with big eyes. Oak looked at me.

"Do you know her?" Oak asked, seeing my response. I nodded and looked back at Scarlet.

"She's been attacked by Team Rocket on the day that Maurice was kidnapped." Oak said. "She hasn't been awake ever since. I fear she isn't gonna make it…" he said sad. Wait, WHAT? Not gonna make it?!

"She's going to die?!" I said on some kind of dramatic and scared tone.

"I fear so." Oak said, understanding me for a second. We remained silent for a while. Then I jumped on top of the incubator. I looked through it and scribbled it, indicating I wanted to get in.

"Hey, don't stand on that…" Oak said, but then saw me scribbling.

"Oh, you wanna get in?" he asked. I nodded.

"Alright then." he said as he grabbed me from the incubator and held me while he opened it. The whole thing turned upwards like a door on it's side and I could enter. I jumped from Oak's arm and landed on the soft underground. It was warm and wet inside there. That was to keep Scarlet's temperature on the right level. I looked at Scarlet for a minute or so before I touched her with my paw. She was colder than normal, but not ice cold. She wasn't dead.

"You two are friends?" Oak asked from behind me, while I checked Scarlet out. It was really scary to see her in this condition. My pikachu mind kicked in.

"Check her cheeks!" it told me when suddenly and before I could do anything something started beeping. It went from slow beeping to very fast beeping and a long and loud sound within two seconds or so.

"Oh no, not again!" Oak said as he grabbed something. It appeared to be a defibrillator. He pushed me aside and connected the device to Scarlet.

"Don't touch her!" he said and made a gesture that I should back off. He pushed some buttons and then the device beeped, gave a loud beep and the Scarlet moved upwards very quick before she went back in her old position. The long sound now had stopped and was beeping regularly again.

"Thank God…" Oak said when he removed the device and put it back safely. I went back to Scarlet's side. She felt warmer than before… Not much but just a little. I could also notice she was breathing better now…

"Check her cheeks!" my pikachu side said again. I allowed my pikachu side to control me and immediately it went over to Scarlet and we connected our cheeks. An scary feeling came over me.

"What's the problem?" my human side now asked the pikachu side.

"She needs energy! She's doesn't have much, she needs a boost!" it said before I sparked my cheeks and shared some of my energy with Scarlet.

"What are you doing?" Oak said as he saw what I was doing. "Oh, you're sharing energy? I doubt that will help." he continued.

"Why wouldn't it help…" my pikachu side thought.

"You see, we already tried to boost her but that didn't work." he said as he grabbed and showed some kind of headphone thingy. It was a device that you could place on pichu, pikachu and raichu and that was used to charge the pokémon.

"But that did nothing to her." he said.

"You need to charge her!" my pikachu side said pointing at the device. It walked over to Oak and snatched it from Oak's hands. Then it turned to Scarlet. The combined knowledge from my human side and my pikachu side was now visible. I kind of told the pikachu what the device was and where you used it for. I didn't need words for it - just thinking about it was enough for the pikachu to understand.

"Um… How do you use this." it thought as it watched the thing. Two hands appeared over me and gently grabbed the device from my hands.

"You want me to charge her?" Oak asked. I nodded. It wasn't strange for pikachu to know the device - some of them were charged before themselves in pokécenters or other places. Therefore they knew what the device did.

"Shall I do it?" Oak chuckled when my pikachu side tried to grab the device again. I watched Oak as he attached the device to Scarlet and then took a step back. He sat behind his computer and looked on the monitor.

"Her energy levels are normal, according to this thing." he said.

"No they are not." my pikachu side said, shaking its head to Oak. "She needs more. If she doesn't get more, she'll die." it said.

"They're not?" Oak said, responding to the shaking head. "Well, you want me to charge her?"

My pikachu mind made me nod.

"Alright then, here we go." Oak said. He pressed a button and I could feel that there was electricity flowing in the device. After a second or twenty, Oak stopped the charging (charging goes pretty quick and overcharge is dangerous) and removed the device. I quickly moved towards Scarlet and felt her cheeks. Her body was as warm as it was before and her cheeks were the same as well. After a charge the cheeks usually were warmer. Nothing had changed. I looked at Scarlet and at Oak.

"Nothing happened!" my pikachu side thought. "She needs more energy and she needs it fast!"

"But why? She just got charged!" I thought back.

"Charged or not, nothing happened. I don't feel anything charged, do you?" it said to me.

"I don't." I thought. My pikachu senses indeed didn't catch a change in her electricity levels. That was one thing that was for sure. I turned to Oak and shook my head.

"Didn't help eh?" Oak said sad. "I don't know what's the problem."

But I did. At least, my human side did have a suspicion. I grabbed the charging device and placed it on myself. That failed and I almost managed to get stuck in it.

"You should just ask if you want to get charged." he chuckled. He liked the company of the pikachu. This male was a chatty little guy.

Oak chuckled and placed it on my head the right way when Nikki jumped up the incubator and looked at me.

"You look ridiculous!" she giggled. I didn't look at her and looked at Oak.

"Charge me!" I said to Oak.

"One second…" he said. "Alright, there it comes!"

I felt strange. It was the first time I got… Charged. I felt the metal of the device on my cheeks and I felt a certain flow between them… At least… I felt one flow. I rubbed my cheeks with my paws. That made my cheek tickle… On one side. I felt the device one more time. This thing didn't charge at all. No sir. It was draining my energy. The negative pool of the device was still working but the positive one wasn't giving any energy. I shook my head and the thing came off.

"Hey watch out, don't break it!" Oak said when I threw the thing off.

"It doesn't work!" I said.

"Feeling better?" he chuckled. "No wonder, that usually happens to charged pikachu." I shook my head.

"No! I'm not feeling better!" I said.

"Not? Did I overcharge you? If you feel sick, you should do a strong thundershock outside. That will make you feel better." he said. I grabbed the device from the incubator floor and looked at it. It was broken, that was for sure. How did I make this clear to Oak?

"Easy." my pikachu thoughts answered. It grabbed the thing and threw it on the ground.

"HEY! Don't break that!" Oak said as he wanted to pick the thing up. I growled fiercely. He looked at me and gave me a mad glare.

"Don't tell me what to…" he said when I growled again and jumped from the incubator to the charger on the ground. He took a step back. My human side took over from the pikachu now. I grabbed the thing and destroyed the wires with one simple but effective jerk and threw the remains of the thing in the waste bin.

"PIKA." I said firmly at Oak. Now I had to act quickly. Scarlet didn't have energy and if a pikachu lost too much energy, it wouldn't have enough energy to make new energy because its body was using too much. That way, a severely injured pikachu could end up in a vicious circle that would lead to death. This is also why friendly pikachu always share energy with wounded counterparts. I felt quite weak. I had to get energy from somewhere.

"It was broken?" Oak said.

"Where do I get energy?" my pikachu side asked my human side.

"Try the power outlets." it answered. The power outlets, great idea. I quickly dove under table with the computer and the incubator and dove under some stuff. It was quite dark behind all Oak's equipment but you could see.

"Hey, what are you doing? Was that thing broken?" he said. I found an double outlet. Both filled with plugs. I had to remove one to get to the energy, so my pikachu side removed both. Pika-logic. I heard the computer above me stopping to work.

"Hey!" Oak said. Shortly after his face appeared under table.

"Don't remove the power from my computer!" he said. "You're getting annoying!"

It didn't care me at all. I stood before the outlet when a certain fear overcame me. I knew that sticking my fingers into the plug could be deadly. Would I be alright, even though I was a pikachu?

"For Scarlet…" I mumbled when I stuck my tiny finger into the hole. Nothing happened. I stuck it a bit further and wiggled it in there. I squeaked when suddenly energy started to flow from the outlet to me. My pikachu side took over.

"Of course you'll be fine, it's just an outlet." it said, while I noticed that my body was pulling energy from the outlet. Within seconds, I felt that I was charging. It only took a couple of seconds before the 'good feeling' started to fade and I started to get headache and I started to feel hot. I pulled my paw from the outlet. Oak looked at me.

"Bad pikachu. You know you may not pull power from the outlets." he said. I didn't care. My cheeks sparked a couple of times. If felt as if I had fever. I walked from under the table slowly and on two feet. The world around me felt dizzy and a bit strange. I was overcharged. I needed to discharge. I shook my head and jumped the incubator.

"Yeah, now you got overcharge." Oak said as a matter of fact.

"Wow, what did YOU do?" Nikki asked.

"I charged myself." I said as I walked over to Scarlet and placed my cheek against hers. My pikachu side controlled the energy and within seconds I had given Scarlet loads and loads of energy. The fever-feeling disappeared as quick as it came and I felt normal again. After a while, I even started to feel weak. I stopped discharging. I looked at Scarlet. I felt her with my paw. Her cheek felt warm, but the rest of her body felt… Cold. But warmer than earlier. She needed more.

"Who is that?" Nikki asked.

"Don't have time to explain." I said while I jumped back down and headed over to the outlet again.

"Wait, are you gonna… No, you won't!" Oak said as he pulled me back. I looked at him.

"We don't pull power from the outlets, that's dangerous for you." he said.

"Give her some of your energy, she needs it or she'll die." I said while I wiggled free and headed over to the outlet. I stuck my paw inside the outlet again. Again I felt the energy flow towards me. I stopped charging earlier than the last time though, and I quickly headed to Scarlet to share my energy.

"One more…" I thought when I felt her body. It had almost the normal temperature. I quickly headed to the outlet and stuck my paw inside. I literally pulled the energy out of there.

"Come on…" I thought when I was charging. I pulled more energy from the outlet when suddenly you heard a sound of machinery shutting down. The lights went out at the same time the outlet stopped providing energy to me.

"What the…." I thought. The power went down because I was taking too much.

"Told you not to pull energy from there." Oak said as he walked over to the room with the fuse box. "Although for sharing it with Scarlet I'll make an exception."

He clicked a button and the lights went back on, the machinery started working and everything went back to normal. I wasn't fully charged yet so I quickly stuck my paw in again and drained the remaining energy from it. After one more overload with energy I quickly headed to Scarlet. I gave her another huge-energy-boost. I took a step back and sat on my hind legs. Sharing all your energy was energy-consuming… Literally. I was panting with my tongue out. Nikki felt Scarlet.

"She should be fine…" Nikki said to me as she nuzzled my side. "Her energy feels normal now…"

"It's all you can do right now, pikachu." Oak said as he placed a hand on my head. He slowly wiggled it between my ears. That felt great.

I looked at him, then at Nikki and then at Scarlet. Then Scarlet stirred. She moved a bit and slowly opened her eyes. Oak stood behind us and looked at Scarlet as well.

"This can't be…" he said. "Can't believe that that thing was broken…"

Scarlet opened her eyes slowly. I stood next to her and looked at her. She looked around and then at Oak. She used her paws to rub her eyes and then looked around again. Then she looked at me. She looked straight into my eyes and pulled a wandering face.

"Maurice…?" she said weak. I looked back at her. Wait.

Wait.

Wait a minute.

Did she just say 'Maurice'?

"Yes… Yes it's me!" I said to her. Scarlet laid her head back down on the pillow.

"I feel so bad…" she said. I couldn't stop looking at her.

"How do you know it's me?" I asked her softly. She opened her eyes again and looked at me.

"I'd recognize those eyes anywhere." Scarlet chuckled. "But…" she said. "Why are you a pikachu…?"

I was so happy that Scarlet recognized me! I wanted to jump around this room and shout that I was happy. I decided not to. Instead I jumped her and hugged her from the side.

"You almost died because of Team Rocket and they changed me into a pikachu and you were unconscious all the time and we charged you and now you're back and you're the very first one to recognize me because nobody does my parents even kicked my from my own house and they don't believe its me!" I said in one breath while hugging Scarlet from the side.

"Whoa there tiger, calm down. I don't understand anything you just said." she chuckled as she faintly pushed my belly, indicating that I should get off her neck.

"Sorry." I said, blushing a bit.

"Who is this, Maurice?" Nikki said.

"What? Oh, this is Scarlet. She's a friend of mine." I said.

"And who is that?" Scarlet chuckled.

"That's Nikki, also a friend." I said to Scarlet.

"Mate." Nikki said.

"She's your mate?!" Scarlet said.

"Yes, you got problems with that?" Nikki said, now sounding rather angry.

"Well, Maurice was my mate earlier." she said. Nikki looked at me and then back at Scarlet. I didn't like the way this was going at all.

"No he's not!" she said before she turned to me.

"Is she your mate?!" she asked, rather angry with me as well.

"No, she's not." I said.

"WHAT?!" Scarlet said. "But you are!"

"No he's not! He just said it!" Nikki said. Scarlet got up (which took her quite some effort) and stood up against Nikki.

"Get away from him, I love him!" she said.

"You go away from him, he's MY mate!" she said, pushing Scarlet back softly. Scarlet growled at Nikki and pushed her backwards as well. Nikki took a couple of steps back, but stepped into plain air when she reached the end of the incubator. She squeaked as she fell backwards and disappeared out of sight.

"Take that." Scarlet said with a trace of happiness as she walked over to me slowly. However, thanks to the excellent balance of the pikachu species, Nikki landed on her feet normally and within one second, she jumped back in the incubator.

"Screw you!" she shouted as she pushed Scarlet away from me. Scarlet lost balance and fell down. She groaned as Nikki jumped towards her, stopped right next to her and slapped her on her face. Scarlet however, slapped back. Nikki yelped and took a step back, her paw on her face. Then she growled. Her tail glowed bright, she turned and bashed Scarlet with Iron Tail.

Scarlet growled as well and did a small electric shock. She then pushed Nikki away and jumped up and pinned Nikki to the ground. Within a couple of seconds, the two females started fighting. And there was nothing I could do about it. I was even pretty… Amused. And shocked at the same time. Scarlet just said she loved me. That could be a problem. Nikki loved me as well, so it appeared. I now had two females fighting for me…

"I already loved him before you even did your first discharge!" Scarlet shouted while she and Nikki were rolling across the floor of the incubator, occasionally bumping into one of the sides, slapping each other with their paws and also pushing each other away. They both tried to evade the open side, not willing to fall down. I stood on the side of the incubator, watching them fight when suddenly a shadow dropped over me. I looked back. It was Oak who just came back in the laboratory. He looked at me. I dropped my ears, because he didn't look to happy. He quickly reached into the females. He placed his hand between them and separated Nikki and Scarlet. He quickly grabbed Nikki at her scruff and lifted her out of the incubator. Nikki yelped and wanted to get back to Scarlet to kick her ass. Scarlet pulled a face and stuck her tongue out towards Nikki before Oak reached in and grabbed her as well. She squeaked as well when he held them up in the air. Nikki had stopped resisting and was hanging in the air with dropped paws, feet, and tail and with a death glare. She wasn't very happy. Scarlet didn't even resist, she knew she couldn't get out of this. These freaking humans with their tricks. Nikki looked at Scarlet.

"You little rat." she whispered. Scarlet looked like she was about to explode. She frantically moved her paws and feet, trying to reach Nikki.

"Hey, calm down you!" Oak said to Scarlet. Nikki laughed. Oak shook her with one firm move. Nikki yelped.

"And you - Don't scold Scarlet!" he said firmly. "Don't think I'm crazy." he added firmly.

"Alright, who started this?" he then asked. It remained silent for a moment before Nikki and Scarlet both pointed at each other.

"She did!" they both said in sync.

"No, you started!" Scarlet said.

"You're not his mate!" Nikki replied.

"Shut up, I am his mate!" Scarlet replied.

"I AM HIS MATE!"

"NO, I AM!"

"YOU'RE NOT, I AM!"

"SHUT UP, RAT!"

"YOU SHUT UP, FATTY!"

"ENOUGH!" Oak said as he shook both pikachu one more time firmly. They both yelped and pulled a painful face.

"What is the reason of this, anyway?!" he asked. Both pikachu looked at each other for a second before they pointed at me.

"He is!" they both said, again perfectly in sync. Oak looked at their paws and then at me. I looked at all three and took a step backwards.

"I didn't do anything!" I said quickly, shaking my head when somebody tapped the door. Oak looked at the door.

"Scarlet, no more fighting, you're still weak, you just woke up after two weeks." he said as he looked at her.

"And you -" he said as he looked at Nikki with a very warning face "- no more fighting."

Both pikachu nodded. He walked towards the door and placed them on the table in the middle of the laboratory. I jumped down from the incubator and walked over to them and jumped the table as well. Scarlet was the first to come to me, she hugged me from one side and gave Nikki a foul look.

"Maurice, you're my mate, aren't you?" she said as she purred at me and rubbed her cheek with mine.

"But… I thought you were my mate…" Nikki said as she sat in front of me, looking sad. I looked at Scarlet and at Nikki. They both looked at me with expectant glances - as if they wanted me to tell them who was my mate.

"Well?" Scarlet said as she broke the hug and sat next to Nikki as well. "Who is your mate?"

"Is it me?" Nikki said, expectingful. I sat there looking at both pikachu which were expecting me to choose right here on the spot. My pikachu side almost exploded inside me, if it was my pikachu side we would have a threesome right here and right now.

"Girls, please…" I said. "I'm nobody's mate."

Both glances on the females changed from expectingful to sad.

"I'm a human, remember." I said. "I'm not gonna mate with a pikachu and I'm not gonna be anyone's mate."

"But… You said you were my mate!" Nikki said.

"Yes, I said I could be your mate. Maybe later, Nikki." I said. "In fact, it was just some excuse to get you here. I said it and I'll repeat it again, Nikki, you're a human. Team Rocket changed you into a pikachu."

Nikki sighed long and deep.

"Not this again… I'm a pikachu!" she said as she looked upwards and spread her paws in frustration before she turned around and walked away from me a couple of steps. Exactly like a human female would do when frustrated.

"Wait, hang on." Scarlet said. "She's also a human?"

"Yes." I said to her.

"Can you explain me, because this is confusing." she said, rubbing her head with her paw. I explained Scarlet everything from what happened after we lost the battle and after I was kidnapped. I scared her with the car crash part, but after I explained what happened at my parents she came towards me and put a paw around me, because it was hard for me to tell that part and I was getting quite emotional.

"Come on, we'll tell them you're Maurice." she said. "We'll manage. It may take a while, because most of the people here don't understand pikachu as well as you do. Oak is not that bad."

"I hope so…" I said. Nikki was also looking at me.

"So… You two are… Friends?" she said, pulling a questionable face.

"Yes, I've met him when he just learned to speak pikachu." she said. "And I loved him ever since. He took me outside for the first time in a really long time, I really liked that." she said as she nuzzled my cheek.

"But… He is a pikachu… He doesn't need to learn to speak pikachu…" Nikki asked, shaking her head a bit.

"When I met him, he was a human." Scarlet said.

"But… A human cannot… That's not possible!" she said.

"Listen, I know. I'm actually very surprised that Maurice is a pikachu, of all people." she said. "But I rode his shoulder when he went back to the pikachu colony he joined. I even recognize his smell by just a bit, so I'm absolutely sure it's him." she said.

"So he was a human…?" Nikki asked, her ears dropping.

"Yes, he was." Scarlet confirmed. Nikki sat down. Her ears drooped, and she sat down.

"I guess that means he'll never be my mate." she said. "No… No, no. That's not possible!" she then said quite mad, shaking her head. "People cannot turn into pikachu just like that! Don't lie to me!" she shouted before she jumped from the table and hid herself in the incubator. I wanted to go after her, but Scarlet grabbed my paw.

"Don't." she said. "She needs some time alone, I think. And no, that's not because I want you to be my mate and not her." she quickly added when Oak came back in.

"Here she is!" Oak said. Scarlet and I looked at him with questionable faces. While we were wondering if he was talking to us, suddenly a pikachu jumped the table. Lukas. He looked at Scarlet and me and then ran for Scarlet and hugged her tightly.

"I was so worried!" he said before he broke the hug.

"Oak said you were going to die… HEY!" he said as he was hugged tightly by me. Oak chuckled.

"I'm so happy to see you!" I said. Lukas accepted the hug but looked a bit surprised when I stood a step back. He gave me a look and checked me.

"Who- Who are you?" he said unsure. I looked at Scarlet. Scarlet looked back at me with an amused smile. We were thinking exactly the same.

"You have to guess who I am!" I said.

"Guess who… But…" he said. "I don't even know you!"

"Do you guys know each other?" Oak asked me and Lukas in particular. Lukas looked at him and shook his head. I looked at Oak and nodded fiercely.

"So you know him but you don't…?" Oak said.

"I know you?" Lukas said, sounding a bit scared. "Did you recently join the colony? Sorry if I forgot you, I'm wasn't really in the mood to meet new pikachu. Scarlet was hurt, Maurice is gone and the pikachu aren't nice to me ever since he's gone." he said with hanging ears.

"The bastards!" I thought. "They promised not to abuse me through Lukas…"

"You know him better than you might think." Scarlet said sarcastically looking up in the sky. Her tail was wagging happily.

"Know him?" Lukas said again. I could see and sense he was seriously doubting himself. He looked at me and came closer. He smelled me and pulled back.

"You don't smell familiar." he then said. He did the same as Scarlet, he looked straight into my eyes and tried to recognize me. I really had to get to know what they were trying by doing that. I now noticed that all the pikachu were doing it. Plus, how could it be that Lukas couldn't recognize me and Scarlet could? Because she was in love with me? Maybe.

"I don't know you." he then said. Scarlet giggled.

"It's Maurice, silly!" she said as she came close and hugged my back, purring happily. Lukas looked at her as if she was completely insane.

"Are you alright, Scarlet? You sure you're not having trouble with your energy?" he then said.

"No, Lukas, she is right. It's me!" I said, chuckling as said it. Lukas then took a step back and looked at me.

"No way." he said. "But… What… What happened to you? Why are you a pikachu? Where is the real Maurice?"

"Team Rocket changed me into a pikachu, unfortunately." I said, looking down and hanging my ears. "First it was cool, but now I'm rejected by my family and kind of homeless. I feel miserable about it."

"They rejected you? Why?" he asked, kind of sceptic.

"Because they don't know it's me. They can't understand me…" I said.

"Yeah right." Lukas said.

"You don't believe me?!" I said.

"I wonder what you guys are chatting about…" Oak said.

"No I don't." Lukas said. "Nice try Scarlet, but trick failed." he chuckled. "Nice try though."

"What?" Scarlet said. "You don't believe us?!"

"No. I don't believe Maurice changed into a pikachu." he said sarcastically. I looked at Scarlet.

"Tell him it's you!" Scarlet said.

"Uhm… It's me!" I said at Lukas. Lukas laughed at me.

"Yeah right." he giggled when he nuzzled Scarlet.

"Nice try Scarlet, it's good that you're back…" he said. "I was so worried about you."

"Lukas, why are you so worried about Scarlet, you barely know her." I said.

"Well, Maurice introduced me to her once and she's a nice pikachu." he said. "After Maurice was kidnapped Oak nursed me and Scarlet for two days and she didn't wake up at any time. I was just worried about her. But I have Lola."

"How are Jack and Julie?" I asked him.

"They're doing pretty well… Jack is strong and Julie is very shy, but she'll be okay..." he said. Then he stopped taking all of a sudden looked at me. "How do you know I have pichu named Jack and Julie?"

"Lukas, I know everything about you by now." I said. "Like when I saved you from the ekans, when your mom attacked me, when your mom died from an attack from these ekans, and when you killed that poacher for shooting Josh. Oh, and remember when we got Cammy from the woods? And when we used Espeon to teach me to speak pikachu? And when that persian almost got you but barely missed you? Or when we took a swim and you scared the shit out of me by pretending you died? Or when you became the leader of the colony? Or when I introduced you to my family back in Viridian? When we went to that shop with the automatic stairs? Or when I tried to explain you and Espeon what time is?" I said, all in one go. I took a moment to breathe.

"I hope that's enough proof I really am Maurice." I said to him, looking at Scarlet with a happy smile. Scarlet chuckled and rubbed her cheeks against mine. Lukas looked at me with disbelief. He stood on his back legs and looked at me again.

"No… No way…" he said.

"Yes way." Scarlet said. "It really is him."

Lukas then leaped forward and hugged me.

"I miss you!" he said. "You need to come back to the colony!" It surprised me a bit that he suddenly hugged me.

"Whoa there Lukas, calm down!" said as I was almost squeezed. Lukas let go and looked at me again. Oak chuckled.

"So you finally remember him?" Oak chuckled.

"That's Maurice!" Lukas said to him.

"Is he from your colony?" Oak asked. "Was he lost or something?" Lukas nodded. Then he turned around and looked around. He then jumped from the table and jumped over to the computer. There was an old photo from me laying there. The one with Lukas on my shoulder that we made when we brought Cammy over here. Lukas pointed at photo.

"It's Maurice!" he said.

"I'm sorry, Lukas. I still don't have a clue where he is." Oak said on a sad tone. "I wish I could tell you, but unfortunately I don't have any information from Officer Jenny. Lukas ears hung down.

"Wait, I shouldn't be sad, we found you!" he said. He then pointed at the photo and then at me.

"That is Maurice!" he said while frantically pointing to the photo and then at me.

"Is that a friend of Maurice? Does he wonder when he comes back as well?" Oak said. Lukas face-pawed. I joined him and stood near the photo.

"Stand next to me, try to stand the same as the photo." I said to Lukas. "Maybe he'll get it." Lukas stood next to me and we did a ridiculous pose right next to the picture. It looked quite like the photo. Oak looked at us and smiled widely.

"You guys make my day, you're so funny…" he chuckled. Lukas pointed to the photo and then at us.

"This is Maurice, Oak!" he said, looking at the professor with hope in his eyes. Oak looked at us and thought. He certainly understood we tried to tell him something.

"Oh I know!" he said. "Maurice would make a photo of you two! I can do that!" he said. Then he quickly turned around to get the camera.

"You have to be kidding me." Lukas said.

"Welcome to my world." I said. "This happens all the time. They just don't listen to you. Now I understand what it is to be a pokémon."

"Welcome to MY world." Lukas chuckled. Oak came back with the camera.

"Well, let's make that picture anyway. If I ever change back into a human, that will be a nice memory." I chuckled. We both posed again with the picture next to us. Oak took the photo. Then we both joined Scarlet on the table again.

"So, you want to tell him you're Maurice, right?" Lukas said.

"Yup, I only didn't figure out how I should do it. Pointing at pictures didn't work with Nurse Joy, Officer Jenny, my parents and apparently not with Oak." I said. "I need to find a way to tell him that I am Maurice. I think he'll allow me to stay here for a while, at least to stay with Scarlet. I hope Nikki wants to stay here as well."

"What about her?" Lukas said. "Is she your mate?" he chuckled.

"Yes, I am! And he is NOT a human!" I heard from the incubator. Scarlet rolled her eyes upwards.

"She wants to be." I said, blushing. "But she has been human as well. I need to keep her here until we find a way we can tell people she has been human as well."

"I'm not staying here!" Nikki said from the incubator. She stood on the edge looking at us. The part about mates had probably triggered her. "I want to find a nice nest for you and me. We've seen plenty on the way here."

"Yes, you are staying here." I said to her.

"Why?" she asked.

"Well, because we have a place to sleep and food here." I said. "And I want to tell Oak that I'm the Maurice he is looking for." I said as I moved over to her and nuzzled her face.

"I like you, just don't want to get a mate just yet." I said, rubbing her cheek. She purred softly. "Not before I'm sure I'll not be able to change back into human…" I said while looking down when Lukas jumped up and joined us.

"You won't be able to change back?" he said.

"I don't know." I said nervously. "That's something Oak has to find out for me. To be honest, I hope I can change back at any time I wish… Maybe even change between form at will, but I don't think that will happen."

"Would be cool if you could join our colony as pikachu…" Lukas smiled.

"Yeah… I certainly wanna see the colony as a pikachu… That will be so different compared to being human…" I said. Scarlet also jumped the incubator.

"This place is nice and warm." she said.

"Yeah, it's made for ill pikachu like you." I said.

"I'm not ill." she chuckled as she nuzzled my cheek.

"Not anymore." I chuckled, blushing a bit, but purring at the same time.

"So, do you guys know some manner to make him clear that I'm Maurice?" I said.

"Not really." Lukas said. "What did you try?"

"Well…" I said while thinking back. "I tried to use a computer, but I cannot make words anymore. And I tried to tell them, I tried to read my X-ray, tried to tell them by pointing at pictures…"

"In other words, all kinds of complicated things." Scarlet said. "I don't understand any of them except the picture one." she said. "Did you try to draw anything?" she asked. "I found a draw thing a while ago… but he took it away after I started making lines on everything. I don't understand it anyway. Maybe you do."

"He gave you a pencil?" I asked.

"A what?" Scarlet asked.

"A pencil. A thing that you use to draw stuff." I said.

"Oh… I didn't know it was a pencil. I usually call it drawthing." she chuckled. "No, I grabbed one from him."

"Do you know where he keeps them?" I asked.

"Sure, in that closet." she said, nodding her head at a certain closet. I jumped from the incubator, followed by all three pikachu. Oak was sitting behind his computer and looked at us when we stood at the closet and tried to open it. Scarlet was the first one to try to open it, but it was locked.

"Dang. It's locked." Scarlet said. She looked at Oak.

"Hey, professor!" she said. Oak looked at her. Scarlet pointed at the closet.

"Can we draw?" she said.

"Do you need something?" he said from behind his reading glasses. He just looked like a very strict teacher.

"Yes, I want a pencil!" she said. "Wait, maybe I should show him…"

Scarlet jumped on the table and pretended to be holding a pencil. She drew a virtual line across the table.

"What…?" he said, looking at her.

"Oh come on!" Scarlet said. "Wait, idea."

Scarlet jumped from the table and walked over to Oak. She jumped his lap and then the computer table and pointed at something. I didn't know what, but it had effect.

"Oh, you want to draw!" he chuckled. "Well, I guess that's OK, as long you stay on the table. No drawing on other things." he said while giving her a firm glance.

Scarlet nodded and jumped down and walked back to us.

"What did you show him?" I asked.

"The lines I drew on his computer when he didn't pay attention." she said. "He didn't like it but I don't really think he minded it."

"You drew lines everywhere?" I asked.

"What do you think? Sure I did. It was fun!" she chuckled.

"You're supposed to draw on a piece of paper, silly." I chuckled.

"See! You know how to use that pendill!" she said.

"Pencil." I said.

"Whatever. Drawthingy." she responded.

"So, we are gonna… Draw?" Nikki asked.

"Looks fun to me." Lukas said when Oak placed paper and some pencils on the table. I was the first one to grab one.

"I already wondered where those papers were for." Scarlet said.

"You've done this before?" Nikki asked me.

"Well, on his computer. Not on the papers." Scarlet said as she grabbed a pencil as well.

"I was talking to Maurice." Nikki chuckled.

"Of course. Every human can draw." I said, holding the pencil downwards on the paper. Wow. That was difficult. As a pikachu I had much smaller hands than I was used to as a human. That was kind of… Strange. I couldn't draw straight lines that good as I could as human and all my lines were wiggly.

"Dang it…" I mumbled, watched by all three other pikachu. I was trying to write some letters, but just as earlier, I didn't know any letters. They were just random marks for me. I couldn't produce them, somehow. If I just had something toddlers use to learn the ABC, then I would be fine. And, my pencil was a waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too big size for a pikachu. Fine for humans, but not for me.

"Who of you knows Iron Tail?" I asked.

"I do." Lukas said.

"Cut this thing in half, about here." I said, laying the pencil on the table and pointing at the place I wanted him to cut it.

"You sure?" Lukas said. "Oak won't get mad at you?"

"About a pencil? Don't worry." I responded.

"Alright then." Lukas said. His tail started glowing and he jumped up, somersaulted and he bashed the pencil. Exactly at the point I told him it was cut in half. Maybe not perfectly straight, but it worked.

"Perfect!" I said.

"What are you guys doing? Training on my pencils?" Oak chuckled, looking up from his computer and looking at the still glowing tail from Lukas. Lukas put his paw behind his head and laughed nervously.

"They're too big, Samuel. You should understand that." I said, showing him the pencil before trying to draw something human style (holding the pencil in my paws like a human would, as far as possible). Too bad Oak didn't notice it. I didn't notice it either, because it was so natural for me. Meanwhile Nikki and Scarlet both had started doing some drawing on a piece of paper. It looked like nothing.

"What's that supposed to be?" I asked after a while.

"How do you mean?" Scarlet asked.

"You're not drawing anything?" I asked.

"What do you mean?" Scarlet asked questionable.

"Well… Are you drawing anything?" I asked.

"I'm drawing lines…!" she said.

"Yep, me too." Nikki said. Lukas was doing the same but not really understanding it.

"This is boring." he said as he threw the pencil aside.

"No it's not. And it might be my only chance to tell them that it's me." I said.

"Then what are you drawing?" Scarlet chuckled. Looks like a whole bunch of lines to me.

"Well, nothing yet." I said. "But I'm gonna draw a human and a pikachu and something that explains that the human changed into it." I continued. "That should do the trick… I hope."

"Well, show us." Nikki said. "I wonder how you're gonna do that."

"Well…" I said as I threw aside the used paper and got myself a new one.

"Maybe... Hmmm…" I said as I thought how I would draw myself in human form. I placed the pencil on the paper and drew a stick figure. Easy. The whole paper was filled with my figure. I got another sheet of paper and laid it next to the other sheet I drew the stick figure on.

"What's that supposed to be?" Scarlet asked, looking at my figure. Lukas checked it out as well and Nikki was watching me drawing a pikachu.

"That's a human." I said to Scarlet.

"A human? That?" Scarlet said before she bursted out in laughing.

"Yes, that's an easy way to draw a human for… Humans." I said. "We use it in comics and such."

"Comic?"

"A short story drawn on paper." I chuckled. "Oak will understand that I drew a human there."

"Will he also understand that it's you?" she asked.

"I don't think so. I need to write my name under it, but I can't write anymore." I said, hanging my ears.

"We'll manage." Nikki said as she nuzzled me. "Even though you're not a human." I sighed contently and smiled at her.

"You're still not believing me, aren't you?" I said.

"No…" she said as she lovingly nibbled my ear. I smiled and purred. Being next to her was actually pretty nice. Being with other pikachu in general felt good. It gave me a feeling of safety and… I couldn't explain it. The atmosphere with fellow pikachu was just different than with humans (if you ignore the fact Scarlet and Nikki were fighting for me).

"Well damnit…" I said as I threw aside the third piece of paper with a failed pikachu.

"How do I draw a correct pikachu…" I thought when I got an idea.

"Nikki, can you lay down for a second?" I said. "On your back with your arms spread out."

"Like this?" she said as she flopped on her back and spread her arms.

"Yes, exactly!" I said.

"Are we gonna mate?" she said.

"Nikki, please!" I said pulling a face. I ignored it for now.

"What are you doing?" Scarlet asked, certainly interested in what I was doing.

"I'm gonna draw you." I said as I pointed at Nikki and placed a pencil at her side. Then I moved past her body with it. Now I would get a perfect pikachu shape. Nikki started giggling.

"Hold still, or it won't work!" I chuckled.

"But it tickles so badly!" she laughed. Scarlet looked at Nikki and Lukas looked amused as I walked around Nikki drawing her shape on the paper. Lukas held Nikki's ears down so they wouldn't move.

"Maurice, quit it! It tickles so badly in my fur!" Nikki said holding her laughter.

"All done!" I said as I finished. Nikki stood up and took a step back. She looked at her own body circumference and chuckled.

"It doesn't look like me at all." she said, pointing at the stripes that should be her.

"I think it looks perfectly like a pikachu…" Scarlet said. "But it looks so empty."

"That's why we're gonna add eyes." I said as I looked at Nikki. Then I placed my pencil on the paper and drew her eyes. Then I added some marks on her ears. Then I added her tail on the right. A thunderbolt shape came from 'behind' her and ended in the heart-shaped dent that females have. I also added her mouth and nose.

"Oh wow, a pikachu. That actually looks pretty neat!" I heard. Oak stood behind us and was watching us.

"Who made it?" he asked, since all of us were holding pencils now, now things got interesting.

"I did." I said as I raised my paw.

"And what's this? Is that me?" he chuckled, pointing at the drawing of a human.

"Wow, you were right. He understood it was a human, even though it doesn't look like it at all." Scarlet said. I looked at Oak and shook my head. I pointed at myself.

"Yeah, you made it. It looks nice." Oak said.

"That was not the question you asked!" I said.

"Yeah, I like it." Oak said. I rolled my eyes. This freaking language problem was getting me on my nerves. I looked at Oak and shook my head.

"No?" he said. "You didn't make it?"

This was my chance. I had his interest. I quickly grabbed my pencil and drew an arrow from the human to the pikachu. I finished the arrow with the two last lines and then laid down in Nikki's shape.

"I hope he gets this." I said. "Wait, Lukas, can you get that picture of me from the counter? Place it on the human figure."

"Sure thing." Lukas said as he jumped down, got the picture of me and him, and jumped back on the table. He quickly placed it over the human figure.

"Uhm… What?" Oak said pulling a questionable face.

"Scarlet, point at my face and then point at me!" I said while I kept still. Scarlet jumped forward and waved her arms to draw Oaks attention. Then she pointed at Maurice on the picture.

"Maurice?" Oak said. Scarlet nodded. She then jumped over to me and tapped my face.

"It's him!" she said.

"Maurice is a pikachu?" Oak said. Scarlet nodded fiercely. I nodded fiercely. Lukas nodded fiercely. Nikki remained silent.

"Oh, I know!" he then said. "You're worried about him, right? You wanna know when he will return to the pikachu colony." he said. We all looked at him for a second. Then we shook our heads.

"No, no, no! This IS Maurice!" Scarlet said as she pointed at me again.

"Scarlet, I know you miss him, but I also don't know where he is." Oak said. "And you're probably also worried about him." he then said as he looked at me.

"No I'm not!" I said as I stood up and shook my head. I raised my arm to stop him talking.

"Look!" I said as I grabbed the pencil, got a new piece of paper and started drawing. I drew another stick figure. I pointed my pencil at it and looked at Oak.

"Uhm… Is that me?" he said. I shook my head and went to the edge of the paper. I drew another stick figure and then made some cape around him and gave him some hair that looked like him. Then I pointed at the figure and at him.

"Ah, that is me!" he said. "That's my coat!"

I nodded and gave him a thumbsup. Then I moved back to the first figure and pointed at it. Oak understood it was someone else.

"Officer Jenny?" he said. I shook my head.

"Nurse Joy?" he said. I shook my head.

"I don't know. What do you mean?" he asked. I grabbed the picture from me and Lukas and placed it next to the figure. I pointed at Maurice and then at the stick figure.

"Ah, that's Maurice!" he said. I gave another thumbsup. I handed him a pencil and imitated someone writing his name.

"You want me to draw… Something?" he said. I shook my head. I grabbed another pencil and stood on the paper. How did I make clear he had to write my own name? Idea. I placed the pencil on the paper and drew some wobbly lines, then I made it look like a book.

"A book?" he asked. I shook my head. I pointed at the lines that had to resemble the lines of text in a book. I moved towards the other page of the book I just drew and started 'writing' it.

"Write in a book…" Oak mumbled. I quickly nodded, jumped back to my stick figure and started to act like I was writing and then pointed at my figure.

"Write a figure? Want me to draw a figure as well?" he said. I shook my head. I pointed at my photo next to the figure.

"Maurice." he said. I nodded and then grabbed his hand. I moved it just under my stick figure and moved his hand as if he was writing something.

"I don't get it. Another figure?" he said. I can make that. I quickly shook my head and looked around. I needed letters. Something that made clear he had to write. I saw some notes next to his computer and quickly got over there to grab them. I moved back to the table and jumped the table with a piece of paper full of his own notes.

"Those are my notes. We're not gonna draw on that." he chuckled as he wanted to grab them. He got hand on them and wanted to put them away, but I started shouting and pointing at the notes. He stopped looked at me with a strange face. Then he held up the notes. I nodded and held out my arms as if I wanted to grab them.

"Alright… If you don't destroy them." he said as he handed me the piece of paper. I quickly placed the notes on the table and then pointed at my photo.

"Maurice." he said immediately. I nodded and then pointed at the letters on his notes and then to just under the stick figure.

"Oh, his name!" Oak said. I nodded quickly as he moved closer. He wrote my name (at least, I hope he did, because I was still unable to read) under my stick figure.

"Jeez, all of this for just a name." he chuckled. I looked at him with a face that said 'don't tell me'. Then I gave him the notes and grabbed a pencil. He placed the notes somewhere safe and walked back towards us.

"Good going, Maurice." Scarlet said as she watched everything I did. "I think you'll be able to tell him this way."

"I hope so." I said.

"We usually don't need so much effort to tell you something. You usually feel what we mean, somehow, even when you couldn't speak pikachu." Lukas chuckled.

"Humans think way too complicated. And I can know, I am one. Or was..." I said when Oak stood before me again. I drew an arrow from myself to whitespace. Then I stopped for moment. I thought about what I should do now.

"You're done?" Oak asked. I quickly shook my head.

"A pikachu." I thought. I placed the pencil on the paper and drew a very bad shape of a pikachu. Then I added a tail and ears.

"A pikachu." Oak said as soon I added a tail. I nodded fiercely. I quickly stopped drawing and went over to the arrow. I pointed at the arrow.

"The arrow…" Oak said. I pointed at the Maurice figure.

"Maurice…" Oak said. "...went to the pikachu? Maurice went to the pikachu?" he said. I shook my head and grabbed my pencil. I drew a checkmark at my own figure and at the pikachu. Oak looked amazed at what I was doing.

"Are you trying to tell me you were a trainer pikachu?" he asked. "Because you appear to be quite smart for a pikachu."

I shook my head and pointed at the arrow.

"Maurice pikachu… And something in between." he said. "Uhm… Went to?"

I shook my head.

"Joined?" he said. I shook my head.

"Into the pikachu colony?" he said. I shook my head again.

"You have to be more explicit." Oak said. "I can't figure this out."

I placed the picture of myself on the figure. I stood on the drawn pikachu myself.

"Scarlet, can you do the pointing again?" I said.

"Sure!" Scarlet said. She pointed at Maurice on the picture.

"Maurice…" Oak said. Scarlet nodded. Then she pointed at the arrow.

"I don't know what that is…" Oak said. "Not what you mean by it."

Scarlet moved on and pointed at me. I gestured an 'it's me!' gesture, or something like it. Oak looked at me and at Scarlet and sighed.

"Sorry, not a clue." he said. "Something with Maurice and the pikachu colony, I suppose. Is he at the colony?" he then asked. Scarlet and me shook our heads.

"This is really frustrating." Scarlet said.

"Tell me." I said. "But we just keep trying."

I grabbed a pencil and started to scratch all over the arrow until it was gone under some lines. Then I started drawing some kind of magic 'poof' thing. I drew an explosion star used in comics and drew two arrows, one from my figure to the explosion and one from the explosion towards the pikachu. Then I looked at Oak. Oak suggested some things, but none of them came close to 'changed into' or 'transformed'.

"Oh come ON!" I shouted.

"Calm down Maurice… You'll manage…" Scarlet said as she put a paw on my head.

"And besides, you still got us." Lukas chuckled as he stood in front of me.

"And me." Nikki said as she seductively licked my face and my cheek.

"Haha, yeah, I still got you guys, but what about my own family…?" I said.

"Well, you'll get a whole new family, a whole colony of pikachu." Scarlet said. "Assuming that you'll join Lukas' colony when everything fails."

"But it won't." I said as I grabbed the pencil again. Oak looked at me with a worried face.

"Is something wrong?" he asked. I nodded and pointed at the arrow and the 'poof'.

"THAT is what's wrong." I said. "We're so close…"

I decided to do one more attempt. I removed the pikachu drawing and drew a human stick figure. This time, after the figure was done, I looked at Oak.

"Maurice again?" he asked. I nodded. Then I grabbed the pencil and added a pikachu tail to the human and added ears and cheeks to the stick figure. I looked at Oak again.

"Yes, I understand it has something to do with pikachu and Maurice, but I don't know what!" he said, almost exclaimed. I sighed.

"I don't know how to make it clear!" I said. I sighed and hung my ears down. Oak placed his hand on top of me and wiggled between my ears. Oh Arceus, that feels so good! I squeaked happy and looked at Oak.

"Don't feel bad." he said before he looked on the clock.

"Arceus, is it that time already?!" he said. "I'll have to leave you guys, I'll be back in about two hours. Lukas, if you want to know what Jenny will say about Maurice, make sure you stick around. She'll come by at four this afternoon, and Maurice' parents will be here as well."

"My parents?" I said as I looked at Oak.

"Yes, there will be a couple of people here." he chuckled. "Anyway, I'll tell someone you guys are in here, don't make a mess." he said, looking to Scarlet.

"You've been in trouble before?" I asked with a smile.

"Well…" Scarlet stammered.

"That means yes." I chuckled.

"Well I tried to make a nest from his papers!" she said.

"Oh dear, I don't think he liked that." I said.

"Nope, he didn't." Lukas said. "He gave her a terrible scolding."

"Yes he did, I really felt bad after that." she said.

"I'm tired." Nikki said as she yawned. This triggered Lukas to yawn as well.

"Me too. Let's take a nap. I've been busy all day." he said. They both jumped from the table and walked over to the incubator.

"Oh, this is really soft!" Lukas said as he felt the soft underground, after jumping up. "I always wondered what if felt like."

"It feels nice." Scarlet said as she jumped from the table and onto the incubator as well. I followed soon.

"So everyone is napping?" I chuckled.

"I guess so." Scarlet said as she laid down on the place she had been lying on for weeks. Lukas laid next to her and Nikki next to him. I laid in front of Lukas and Nikki and now everyone was kind of cuddling everyone. It felt really good. Nikki was nuzzling my cheeks, Lukas was purring softly and Scarlet felt asleep fairly soon. I like this part from pikachu - social and they don't care if you're mates or not if you sleep together. It's just a survival mechanism that they use. I yawned and closed my eyes. I fell asleep quickly after.

. . .

The nap didn't take very long. About an hour later we were awake again. After begging some of Oak's assistants for food, we decided to go outside for a while, just to look around a bit. When we walked outside, Lukas came up with the best idea of the day.

"We should visit Jack, Rosie and Cammy… I'm sure Cammy would love to see you like this." he chuckled as he looked over me.

"Oh, that's a nice idea Lukas! We should visit Cammy!" I said.

"Why not." Scarlet said as she laughed at Lukas' comment.

"Who are Jack, Rosie and Cammy?" Nikki asked.

"Jack and Rosie are two pikachu and mates, and Cammy is my pikachu." I said. "She's been abandoned from the colony and I adopted her."

"Adopted?" Nikki said, pulling a questionable face.

"Never mind." I said. "She's my pikachu."

"So you're the father?" Nikki asked.

"What? No, not the father. Jack and Rosie are the parents." I said to make not more complicated than they were.

It didn't take long before we reached the small forest where the nest was located. I could smell Cammy from far outside. I knew she was inside there, I was dying to see her again, especially after she was kidnapped. I looked around for the entrance to the burrow and found it quickly. I ran inside the pikachu nest. I realised this was the first time I entered a real pikachu nest! It was so cool. The corridor went down and then made a sharp turn and split up in two rooms. Straight ahead I could see Cammy. It was because of my pikachu sight, if I was a human I was sure I couldn't see a thing! I walked inside.

"Who are you?" I heard. It was Cammy who asked me that.

"Cammy!" I shouted before I hugged her. Cammy was surprised at first. Then she tried to get me away from her.

"HEY! What are you doing?!" she said before pushing me off. She didn't really sound happy. More like scared and on the edge of crying.

"Well, what does it look li…" I said happy.

"HEY! WHO ARE YOU!" I heard behind me. Jack was standing in the room. Straight up, cheeks sparking.

"Why are you in our nest?" he said rather angry.

"Jack!" I said. "I'm glad you're here!"

"What are you DOING here?" he said again. "GET OUT AND GET AWAY FROM CAMMY!" he shouted before dashing at me with a quick attack. I reacted quickly and jumped aside (as far as possible). Jack ran past me on purpose, slid to a stop and stood before Cammy.

"GET OUT!" he said.

"But…" I started.

"GET OUT I SAID!" he said again. His cheeks sparked and before I knew it I was hit by a thunderbolt. It hurt, even though the damage wasn't that big.

"Cammy, are you OK?" he asked. Cammy nodded. Jack looked at me and started walking towards me very intimidating and with a very unpleasant face.

"Get out now!" he said. I didn't budge.

"But it's me!" I said. Then I realised that I didn't tell them yet. Shit. I was so used to them that I totally forgot about that.

"Who is you." he said. He was close to me now.

"Jack, calm down! I'm Maurice!" I said. Jack stopped walking for a split second, looked at me, but then resumed.

"Bullshit." he said. His face was now against mine. He pushed me out of the nest. I braced myself, but he was stronger.

"Maurice is a human." Jack said slowly. "You're telling me that you are him? Don't try to fool me." he said. "NOW GET OUT OF MY NEST BEFORE I KILL YOU!"

Stubborn as I was, I didn't listen. Jack continued pushing me backwards.

"How is Cammy?" I asked.

"That is none - And I repeat - NONE of your business." he said.

"I'm worried about her!" I said.

"I don't care."

"But…"

"GET OUT!" Jack shouted before he, completely out of nowhere, used Iron Tail. He hit me full and launched me from the nest. Suddenly I was outside and I flew in the air. My pikachu body responded, I made a backwards somersault and landed on all fours perfectly.

"He's doing exactly the same as me, months ago." Lukas said with rolling eyes.

"I see that." Scarlet said. Nikki stood behind them, looking a bit scared.

"...And stay awa… Oh hi Lukas, Scarlet." Jack started and said surprised. He then turned to me and growled.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"I told you." I said, growling back. "I'm Maurice."

"No shit." Jack said. "No way you're Maurice." He looked at Scarlet and Lukas.

"Do you know this guy?" he said, expecting a negative answer.

"We do, yes." Scarlet said. Lukas nodded.

"Is it Maurice?" he asked.

"Yes, it is Maurice." Lukas said. Jack looked at me and then he looked back at Lukas. Then at Scarlet.

"You're kidding me." he said.

"Actually not." Scarlet said. "He's Maurice - for real!"

"I… I don't believe that." he said as he looked at me. "Maurice is a human…" He then looked at Lukas and Scarlet. They looked kind of sad he didn't believe then. Then he looked at me quickly.

"You… I'll give you one chance." he then said, expecting me to fail whatever was coming.

"Tell me anything that Maurice knows but everyone else doesn't." he said, looking at me with a smile. He really expected me to fail this. I looked at Lukas and Scarlet. They looked at me, expecting some juicy detail about Jack.

"That's easy." I said as I waved my paw to him to come closer. Jack hesitated but then came closer.

"Or do you want me to share this to them as well? You better come closer." I said as Jack hesitated. He looked at Lukas and Scarlet as I whispered something in his ear.

"Remember when I was cuddling you two on my chest one day?" I said, meaning Rosie. "You two were having such a nice time that you started mating on top of me." I whispered as gently as I could. "Much to my displeasure." I added quickly. Jacks eyes grew wider and he jumped back from me.

"WHO TOLD YOU THAT?!" he said, scared a bit and angry.

"Nobody." I chuckled.

"But…" he said. I moved closer and whispered something else in his ears.

"You are afraid of Caterpies. And Rosie still misses your old trainer, Willy, everyday." I whispered. Those were some secrets I was quite sure of only I knew (besides Jack). Jack never told anyone he was scared of Caterpies and Rosie only mentioned once she missed her old trainer everyday when I could understand her.

"But…" he said again as he looked at me from top to bottom and back.

"Told you." Scarlet said from the side.

"I…" he said when he touched my ears. "I can't believe this…"

"Me neither, when I saw it." I said.

"So it is you?!" he said.

"Yes, it really is me." I said.

"Unbelievable…" he said again.

"How is Cammy? She didn't look that good." I said.

"Cammy isn't that well since she got back. She got afraid of humans and she doesn't want to leave the nest at all." Jack said with his ears down. "She is afraid of anything and she wants to be with you."

"Oh, the poor thing…" I said, also with my ears hanging.

"She doesn't even want to go outside with me, and she loved that." Lukas said. Scarlet looked at Lukas with an interesting face.

"Didn't know you got another mate." she said.

"I haven't!" he said.

"So, who's that Cammy you're talking about?" Nikki asked.

"Cammy is a pikachu that Maurice adopted." Lukas said. "She was still a pichu when he took her away from the colony though."

"He took her away from the colony?" Nikki asked.

"Yes, she was rejected by the mother." Lukas said. "She is a white pikachu, not yellow. So don't get scared, she's actually pretty nice."

"Oh…" Nikki said. "White?" she added with a strange face.

"Just wait and see." Lukas chuckled.

"Well let's go and see her." I said. "I hope she isn't scared of me after my entry just now."

Me and Jack entered the nest and made our way over to the den that housed Cammy. I had never been in here before (if you don't count the little thing with Jack a minute or so ago). We entered the room and Cammy looked at us. She saw me and took a step back.

"It's him again, what is he doing here...!" she said, sounding scared and walking against the side of the den trying to get away from me.

"Cammy, don't worry!" I said as I came closer. However, this only made Cammy more scared.

"Get… Get away from me… Get away!" she said, starting to shake. Jack stood next to her.

"Cammy, calm down." he said. "There's nothing to be afraid of."

"But… You chased him off, didn't you?" she asked.

"Yes, I did." Jack said. "But I was wrong. This pikachu here is Maurice." he said, looking at Cammy. She looked at him for a moment before she realised what he had said. Her eyes grew larger and she looked at him and at me.

"Whu- Whu- what?!" Cammy said before she grew even more scared of me.

"It is Maurice." Jack said again. "He came here to see you…"

"But…" Cammy started.

"Hello Cammy." I said as I came closer to her. She did not walk backwards now, but you could see she was still scared. I decided it would be better that I showed her it was me. I sat down and started to cuddle with her.

"So how's my little girl doing?" I said, exactly as I spoke to her as a human. "Even though you're now as big as me." I added as I gently ruffled through her fur and behind her ears exactly as I did as human. Cammy was quite… Surprised. But her heart melted right in front of me, especially after I nuzzled her exactly as I did as a human.

"It really is you…" she said as she looked at me before she jumped at me and hugged me and cried.

"I was worried about you!" she said while crying. "I was afraid they would kill you! I was afraid I would never see you again…!"

"Yes… It really is me." I said as I hugged her tightly and somehow, I also started to cry a bit. "I was also afraid they would hurt you. Thank Arceus they didn't."

We cuddled for a moment and when I broke the hug, Cammy looked all cheered up. She came closer and sniffed me, took my scent.

"You smell funny." she said.

"You think so?" I asked. "Whatever."

"I'm worried about you, Cammy… Jack said you're not really doing well."

"What… Well I was very sad that you weren't here and I still feel bad about Team Rocket…" she said as she looked down with an expression that said she still had some trouble dealing with it.

"Everything is okay now." I said as I grabbed her paw.

"Well, yes, everything except that you are a pikachu now." Scarlet said.

"That's true… But we'll fix that somehow… I hope. First I need to convince Oak that I am actually Maurice and that I changed into a pikachu. Not a really big success until now…"

"You didn't manage to tell them yet?" Jack said as he laid his paw on my back.

"No, they don't listen to me. And when I think it's clear, they won't understand me." I said as I sighed.

"Yep. Very annoying." he said. "That's what we experience every day."

"My parents are coming later today… Mind if you come?" I asked.

"Of course not, I also wanna know if they found… Well… You…" he said realising they were trying to find me.

"By the way, where's Rosie?" I asked.

"She's out with the pichu. Cammy didn't want to go so I sticked with her." he said as he nuzzled her face.

"But I want to go outside now!" Cammy said.

"Really?!" Jack said. "Just an hour ago you didn't want to go!"

"Maurice is back! I don't need to worry!" she chuckled. Jack remained speechless for a moment.

"I don't know what you did, but it worked." he said to me, shaking his head. We headed outside.

"Let's play!" Cammy said as she jumped towards me and stood in front of me in a playful stance.

"I'm alright, as long we're on time for my parents we can play!" I chuckled. Lukas came up from behind and pushed me over. With his tail he started to tickle me. It made me laugh.

"I still owe you this…" he laughed as Scarlet also started to tickle me, this time from the side. Cammy then started to tickle my head. Nikki stood next to the whole thing, laughing at the pikachu tickling me.

"Who's the little pikachu now, eh?!" Lukas laughed. Suddenly all pikachu stopped tickling me and Lukas shocked me with a short but clearly feelable shock.

"MAURICE IS IT!" he shouted before he ran away as quick as he could. Nikki, Scarlet and Cammy also launched away, flying past Jack while doing so.

"Hey!" I said before I ran after them, trying to overtake one of the three pikachu. Jack remained behind at the entrance of the nest.

"Youngsters…" he muttered.

**. . .**

The afternoon went by so fast, much faster than I wanted. It was Lukas who said we should go to Oak because my parents would come. I'd totally forgotten about it while playing with my fellow pikachu. We'd played tag for a long time. The others laughed at me that I was so slow, but during the game you could notice improvement. With my human thinking capability, I could also do stuff the pikachu would never expect from me. Besides tag we played some hide'n seek, but we also battled some friendly battles. Lukas beat me multiple times, but after a lightening-quick dodge and Iron Tail I did out of nowhere, I managed to beat him on our last battle. The action was so fast that Nikki, Scarlet and Cammy all stood with their paws before their mouth, wondering what just happened.

Rosie joined us after a couple of battles and later in the afternoon. After she looked at me for a while she asked me one question to also proof it was me. When I answered it correctly she hugged me tighter than Cammy had done earlier and told me she missed me as well and that she thought it was never possible that I had turned into a pikachu.

It must have been around five or so (my pikachu mind didn't work with time, it just looked at the 'big-ball-of-light' aka the sun to determine if it was tired or not) when we headed towards the laboratory. The whole gang came along. Me, Lukas, Cammy, Scarlet, Nikki, Jack and Rosie and their two pichu, which also seemed to love me as pikachu. The door to the laboratory was open and the door towards Oak's room as well. We headed inside and we could see Oak sitting inside.

"Oh hey…!" he said when everyone got inside.

"Oh my, you took everyone with you, Lukas?" he said. Lukas looked strange and then pointed at me.

"Oh, you made new friends?" Oak said. I looked at him and shook my head.

"I already know these people." I said as I pointed at the pikachu. "I mean pikachu…" I said, blushing a bit.

"I see." Oak said. "Well, they're good pikachu, so enjoy them while you're here. I guess you're gonna head back to the colony with Lukas?"

I shook my head. No I wasn't. I'd be staying here.

"So I have been looking over these while you were gone." he said as he held up the drawings I made earlier. "But I still can't make something out of it. Even my assistants can't seem to figure out what it means."

I sighed.

"Come on, you are a professor, why can't you figure something easy out?" I said. "Jack, how do you manage to tell him something weird if you need to?" I asked Jack.

"I don't know… We never told him that we were a human, I wouldn't know how to do it." he said.

"I wouldn't know neither… I know a lot, I mean a lot, but I wouldn't know how to tell him you are Maurice…" Rosie said.

"I wouldn't mind if we wouldn't tell him…" Nikki said as she licked my cheek. "It's not true anyway…"

"Haha, you wish." I chuckled as I nuzzled her back. She purred softly.

"Anyway…" Oak said. "They should be here any minute now. I hope officer Jenny will be here quickly as well."

"Who will be here?" Rosie asked.

"My parents. And officer Jenny." I said. "They are still trying to find me, remember…."

"Oh yeah…" Rosie said. "But I like that you're a pikachu." she chuckled as she purred at me. "Although I miss cuddling with you."

"Awww, that's sweet of you." I said as I blushed a bit.

"Well I do too!" Cammy said. "I like sleeping next to you, you always cuddle with me at night."

"Well, thanks, Cammy…" I said, blushing harder. Then the door opened and my parents came walking in. It kind of meant a lot to me that they were here.

"Mom!" I said.

"Oh my, did you get invaded by pikachu?" she said to Oak.

"I fear so, Lukas took everyone here." he chuckled.

"Hello Cammy…" she said as she stroked the white pikachu.

"That feels so good…" Cammy squeaked happily.

"I want too!" Nikki said as she begged my mother for cuddles.

"Oh, and who is this?" my mom said.

"I don't know, I don't know these two." my dad said as he sat next to my mom and wiggled his fingers across Nikki's head. "I know all of these. Good to see that Scarlet recovered, Samuel."

"Yes, that's actually thanks to this pikachu here…" Oak said, pointing at me.

"Hi little guy, how are you?" my dad said as he wiggled his fingers over my head as well. That felt absolutely great.

"Dad, it's me...!" I said. I grabbed his hand and pulled him with me. The picture of me and Lukas was still on the table, and I quickly fetched it and handed it to him. He looked at it and I could see he didn't knew this picture. He watched it for a moment and kept silent. Then he looked at me.

"So… You also worried about him, aren't you?" he said. I looked at him and shook my head. I wasn't worried, I was right here.

"You're not? But you're a member of that pikachu colony, aren't you?" he said. I nodded my head.

"Maurice wasn't your friend I guess." he said as he sighed. I shook my head and grabbed his hand again, which was leaning on the table.

"Look!" I said. I grabbed the picture of Lukas and me and held it in front of me.

"Lukas, come!" I said. Lukas came.

"Oh, the picture!" he said. He stood next to me. Then I pointed at Lukas on the picture and then at the real Lukas.

"Yeah, that's Lukas." he said. "And that's my son." he said pointing at the picture. I quickly shook his head and pointed at the picture myself. I pointed at myself on the picture. Then I pointed at myself, the pikachu self that was standing next to the picture. My father pulled a face. He mumbled something I could not understand and then he turned around.

"No, WAIT!" I said, but my father didn't listen. He walked back to his coffee when officer Jenny walked in.

"Good afternoon to all." she said. "Oh my, all the pikachu…"

"They're also worried about Maurice." Oak smiled. "Especially Lukas and Cammy. Would you like some coffee?"

"No thank you, I don't have much time so I'll get right to the point." Jenny said. My parents nodded.

"I have both good and bad news." Jenny said. My parents indicated she should start with the bad news. They prepared for the worst.

"The bad news is that we finished the investigation on the hideout of Team Rocket. We did not find Maurice there." she said. "I'm sorry for that."

"Not a trace of him?" my mother asked.

"Mom, I'm right here!" I said as I shook my paws in the air. Jenny looked at me with an annoyed face. The rest ignored me.

"We did find traces of him. His phone, for example. His clothing, proof he has been there." she said.

"We also discovered, according to documents and computer data, that Maurice is very important for them. That is the good news - it is not likely that he has been killed, only moved somewhere else." she said. "The reason that they need him is unknown to us - most Team Rocket members keep their mouth shut tight." she said.

"Has any of you an idea why they need him?" she said, looking at professor Oak.

"I have already told you the only reason I could find." Oak said. "And that one is very unlikely."

"I thought so." she said. Jenny then gave my parents some updates on what they found and what they expected to happen next. After about 15 minutes she was done. Meanwhile I had been trying to catch their attention, only to drive Jenny insane and to drive my parents nuts. It drove me to panic - if I couldn't get their attention now, when could I?

After everything was said and everyone was done asking questions, my parents were about to leave. This panicked me even more. Standing in front of the door opening and stopping them from going outside, even threatening to electrocute them.

"Lukas, please stop them!" I cried when they wanted to leave anyway. Scarlet and Lukas both stood in front of them now, trying to stop them from going outside.

"What's the matter with these pikachu?!" my mother asked.

"I don't know - they want you to stay, apparently." Jenny said when I pulled my father's legs towards the table where my drawings were.

"Come on dad!" I said. He looked at me.

"Alright, what do you want from me." he said as he stepped after me. I quickly ran to the table and waved at him to come over. My mother, Jenny, and Oak came as well. I grabbed the drawings I made and placed them in front of them.

"What's this…?" my dad asked.

"A drawing. Maurice… Towards… a pikachu?" my mother said.

"This is a pikachu from Lukas' colony, and apparently a friend of Maurice." Oak said. "He made a drawing of Maurice and of himself. He is wondering when Maurice will return to the colony."

"NO I'M NOT!" I said. Translated in pikachu it was a firm "PIKA!". Everyone looked at me. I pointed at Oak and shook my head.

"You're not wondering when he will return to the colony?" Oak asked. I shook my head again. Then I pointed at the drawing.

"These are quite nice, considering a pikachu made them." Jenny said. "And it is uncommon for a pikachu to be able to draw. Where did you get this pikachu?"

"They stood in front of my door this morning." Oak said. "Not very uncommon, colony pikachu sometimes visit me ever since Maurice joined them. They are curious what happens around here. I think Lukas told them something about this place."

"Uhm, hello, attention please!" I said. Everyone looked at me again. I pointed at myself, the stick figure with my name.

"Maurice." my father said. I gave him a thumbs up. Then I pointed to the arrow and then at the stick figure with the pikachu tail.

"Pikachu…" my father said while pointing at the other stick figure. I gave him another thumbsup.

"But this…" he said. "Went to the pikachu?"

I shook my head.

"Moved to the pikachu?" he said.

I shook my head again. He did the same as Oak. And he didn't get 'changed into' or 'transformed' or other words that could explain what I was now. After ten minutes my parents were done with it. Even though I wanted them to stay badly, they were heading out. I tried to stop them with all my powers, but they had another appointment, or so it appeared.

"Please - don't go!" I said as I cried and stood on my father's shoulder and hugging him to make him either stay or take me with him.

"Sorry little guy, we don't want a pokémon at home. Ask Oak, he'll help you." he said.

"I'll be going as well." Jenny said as she shook Oak's hand and held the door open for my parents to leave.

"Bye Samuel, we'll keep in touch." my father said.

"See you later." Oak said as he shook his hand. "I'm sorry for everything."

"You didn't want this, we don't blame you." my father said as he put a hand on his shoulder.

"Still, it makes me feel guilty." he sighed. "You should go now."

"See you later, Lukas, Cammy, Scarlet, Jack, Rosie - everyone." my father said when suddenly a man stormed inside the laboratory.

"Finally I'm here!" he said as he looked at Jenny. "Is giving me a lift too much for you?" he then said while giving a foul look at officer Jenny.

"Oh my, here we go again." Jenny said.

"We are out, bye!" my father said, but the man pulled him back in.

"HOLD IT!" he said as he pulled my mother back as well.

"If I'm right, you're the parents of Maurice, right?" he said.

"That… is correct." my father said.

"Samuel, sorry I come in so rudely." he said. "They told me that you were in charge over Maurice with some kind of pikachu project so you were the first I needed to find."

"That… is no problem…" Oak said as he looked at him. "Excuse me, but who are you?"

The man looked at him and now I could see his face, I recognized him. It was the researcher that had picked me up from the cage! The one that was there against his will, according to the pikachu inside there.

"Who am I? For heavens sake, Samuel, it's me! Albert!" he said. Oak looked at him for a couple of seconds with a stunned face.

"But… You… You died in a terrible accident!" he said, stunned.

"That is what they wanted you to believe." he said annoyed. "I don't have time to explain, every second is crucial."

"Listen - " he said to my parents. "I have important information about your son."

"You know something about his whereabouts?" my mother asked quickly.

"No - but I have information for you!" he said. "Listen to me. Your son was caught by Team Rocket. They used him as a test object for new technology and they…"

"Not this again." Jenny interrupted him. He looked at her with an annoyed face.

"Look, what this guy tells is the biggest bullcrap I have ever heard. I would advise not to listen to it." Jenny said with annoyed

"Officer Jenny, I acknowledge your authority, but this is my laboratory and Albert is one of the most respected poképrofessors in Kanto. What he tells you is not 'bullcrap'." Oak said with a serious face.

"I am aware of that, but this kicked my mind and…" she ranted before I launched a massive thunderbolt to her. She should shut up now or things could go wrong. Jenny shouted loudly before she fell on the ground and moaned painfully. My mother and father jumped back from the attack.

"Ooohhhh…" she said. I gave her a death glare and growled loudly.

"You are arrested for…" she said, but one firm glance and sparking from my cheeks was enough to shut her up. She stood up as I jumped back on the table. The scientist looked at me and then continued. Jenny did not interrupt him this time.

"As I said, they used new technology. Maurice was a test object for pokémon transformation. By altering his DNA, he has been changed into a pikachu! What I want to say is - you are looking for a human called 'Maurice'. That human does not exist anymore! You're looking for a human - You have to look for a pikachu!" he said, breathing deep after he said so, looking at everyone in the room.

It went silent in the room after he said that. After about fifteen seconds everyone in the room slowly turned their faces at me and stared at me, excluding Albert. I stood there staring back, tears forming in my eyes. I let out a long, deep, happy and emotional sigh. They finally knew. I was saved.

* * *

><p><em>And that's it! Please review! :)<em>


	31. Understanding

_Hello everyone, and thanks for all the people for being so loyal to this story even though I don't update that much._

_I'd like to thank Pichufan for the beta as usual. This part it's EMOTION OVERFLOW, so get your tissues ready._

_Without further ado, let's get started!_

* * *

><p>Everyone (including officer Jenny, which didn't want to believe in the whole transformation thing) looked at me for at least ten seconds before Oak was the first one to move. Albert looked at me as well.<p>

"What's the matter?" he said as he also looked at the gang of pikachu standing on the table, as Oak moved closer to me, not moving his eyes off me. He sat lower and looked straight into my eyes. Then there was an awful silence. Oak looked at me and then broke the silence.

"Maurice…?" he said slowly, completely surprised. I looked back at him and I nodded quickly, pulling a serious but unhappy face.

"Maurice, is that you...?" he then said, trying to confirm it again. Then he looked on the table and saw my drawing.

"Maurice changed into a pikachu…" he said to himself quickly as he stood up and looked on the drawings.

"How could I not see this...!" he then said frustrated, throwing his arms in the air, turning around and walking a couple of steps. Then he looked back at me.

"Is that really you?!" he said. I nodded again. I could feel that I got emotional. I raised my hands towards my parents.

"It's me dad…!" I said softly, watching my parents. They looked at me and remained silent. They looked perplexed. I turned around and got my picture, the one with Lukas on it. I held it in front of me.

"Please believe me, it's really me…!" I said, tears forming in my eyes.

"They believe you now… Don't worry." Scarlet said as she put a paw on my head. "They need some time to…" she paused. "Well, to believe it." she finally said as my father came closer.

"Wait, is that Maurice…?" Albert asked with a hopeful voice as he pointed at me. Oak looked at him and nodded.

"It appears so. I can't believe this." Oak said as my father moved closer.

"Wait a minute…" he said as he saw me holding the picture. "You are that pikachu that was in our house two days ago!"

I looked at him surprised and then nodded.

"I didn't mean to break that picture, dad, I just wanted you to know it's me…!" I said as I started to cry soundless tears. "I just wanted you to know…" I said softly as he sat in front of me, looking in my eyes. "Please believe me…"

"Are you… Are you really… Are you my son…?" he said. I nodded.

"Pika." I heard next to me. Scarlet stood next to me and also nodded while laying her paw on my back. Lukas quickly stood on the other side and nodded as well.

"Come on Maurice, give him a hug... or... something." Scarlet said as she pushed me forwards a bit towards my father. I looked back at her and then at my father. He looked at me a little bit better before he looked over to the drawings I made. He shook his head softly and narrowed his eyes. He was thinking something, I wish I knew what... Then he looked back at me and held his hands forward and closed them around my pikachu body. I started crying and looked at him. He looked me in the eyes once more.

"It really is you… I… I can't believe this…" he said as he quickly lifted me upwards and hugged me closer to himself, doing exactly what I did with other pikachu. I nuzzled my face around his neck and cried a lot. The tension of never getting ever discovered, being unsure, being rejected, being homeless, being a pikachu for… Maybe forever, I didn't know anything anymore. It was like my brain short circuit or something. I cannot remember much of that moment anymore, other than that I was so happy to be with my father that I literally bursted out with tears, also because he finally knew.

"Sshhhh… It's alright, we know it's you now…" he said as he turned around and hugged me and used his (now) giant hands to cuddle me and to stroke me across my head and back. Actually that felt really good. Like a three year old kid all I wanted was my father and mother, and I fucking didn't care.

"We were so worried we would never see you again…" he whispered to my ears after a while. I responded by quickly hugging him even closer, almost suffocating him. He pulled me away gently and then turned around and walked to my mother, still holding me safely. My mom looked at me and then looked at my dad.

"Honey, you don't think that…." she started, but my father gave her a glance.

"Sweetheart, I indeed do believe this is him." he said.

"But… How in the world…" she said as she held to the table. Jenny quickly put her in a chair. She looked about to faint.

"Honey, listen to me carefully. If everything Oak has told us is true, this pikachu is capable of doing things a normal pikachu would never be able to. Just take a look at these drawings." he said as he turned around and showed her the drawings.

"A pikachu wouldn't make these. Just think about it. A stick figure is something completely human - the arrows that indicate something. A pikachu wouldn't do this." he said.

"Look at this - this is what Scarlet drew." he said as he showed Scarlet's drawing.

"It's awesome!" Scarlet said.

"Just a bunch of lines." my mother said as she looked at it. "Nothing too special."

"You have to be kidding…!" I heard Scarlet say from the back.

"Exactly." my father said as he pointed at my drawing again. "Then we have the fact that this pikachu came to our home. I didn't hear the neighbours talking about a strange pikachu getting inside. I recognize him. Remember what he was trying to do? Remember that we commented he was behaving strangely afterwards but couldn't find him anywhere?"

"Yes, but-" she started. "- I would never think… Oh Arceus…" she said as she looked at me. I had started crying again while looking at her. I loved her, for fucks sake. I was looking at her and the only thing I wanted to do was hug her close until the end of times. How could she not believe me now… Although I did understand it was kind of strange. I held my paws forward towards her and indicated I wanted to go to her instead of my dad. She grabbed me from my father and hugged me as well. I hugged back and cried again. I just wanted them to believe me. I wanted to go back to my human form, I wanted everything to return how it was.

"Oh Maurice…" she whispered as I nudged her neck and cheek with mine. "If you only knew how scared I was something had happened to you…"

"Something did happen to me…" I mumbled under the hugs. She then pulled me forwards and looked at me.

"Yes, something did happen to you." she said. She must have caught my talking. Tone of voice can tell people a lot, so it appears.

"But I wonder, who are you then?" my father said as he looked at the researcher named Albert.

"And why do you know my son turned into a pikachu?" my mother added, sounding rather angry. Albert stood back a bit by the sudden change of atmosphere.

"Let me do a proper introduction first. I am Albert, a pokémon researcher from Jhoto. I am about the professor Oak from Jhoto." he said as he looked at my parents. "About six years ago, Team Rocket kidnapped me and faked my death by a terrible traffic accident which was all set up, but believed by everybody. I was involved in a research involving pikachu manipulation, or rather human transformation and DNA manipulation. To make things short, using pikachu DNA and human DNA we tried to transform humans into pokémon. Your son is the result of our work." he ended. "That's my introduction in a nutshell."

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY SON!" my mother said as she put me down and stood closer to Albert.

"Honey, calm do-" my father said.

"Please let me expla…" Albert said at the same time.

"NO I WON'T. THIS PIECE OF SHIT IS THE REASON OUR SON IS A PIKACHU!" she shouted as she stood in front of Albert, who didn't even flinch. He just closed his eyes and looked annoyed.

"If you allow me, I will explain…" he repeated.

"THERE IS NO NEED TO EXPLAIN!" my mother said. "YOU HELPED THEM CHANGING MY SON INTO A PIKACHU AND YOU NEED TO BE PUNISHED FOR IT!" she shouted.

"I HELPED THEM BECAUSE THEY THREATENED TO KILL MY WIFE AND CHILDREN IF I DIDN'T!" he shouted back to her. My mom stood back from the sudden outburst by Albert.

"DON'T THINK I DID THIS OUT OF FREE WILL, I DIDN'T WANT THIS. THEY FORCED ME, AND IF I WOULD NOT COMPLY, THEY WOULD KILL MY OWN CHILDREN IN FRONT OF MY VERY OWN EYES." he shouted, before he looked at my mother with very angry eyes before he left the room and slammed the door shut, almost breaking the glass as he did so, leaving my mother and father looking at the door.

"I think you owe the man an apology." Oak said after a silence. My mother sighed deeply when Oak left the room for a moment to check on Albert.

"Excuse me… I'm just…" she said as she looked at me and Oak. Oak gave her one more look and then left the room. Jenny looked from the back of the room at all of us.

"And then to believe that I DIDN'T believe him." she said as she put her hand for her mouth. She got back to herself quickly. "I need a talk with him… I wonder if we can sue him for… For whatever." she mumbled as she also left the room. My mom looked back at me.

"Oh honey…" mom said as she picked me up and hugged me again. I hugged her back and after another minute or so my sad mood had all been cleared up. I actually felt great now my parents finally knew it was me. My father also smiled and put his hand before his mouth, looking at me with an estimating look. I looked back at him with a slight smile that told him that I was wondering what he thought.

"I'm absolutely sure it's you… Your appearance might have changed, your behavior certainly hasn't." he laughed. "So besides being a pikachu… How is it being a pikachu…?" he asked, leaving me puzzled.

"Knowing you you'll probably find it the coolest thing that ever happened to you." he said, leaving my mother completely gobsmacked. He laughed even harder when I replied by a loud "Pika!" and jumped from the chair to the ground, before climbing his shoulder and standing there rubbing his cheek.

"Heh heh, you really adapted to that pikachu body of yours quickly, didn't you?" he said as he tickled me under my chin, making me purr.

"Yup." I said, knowing that he would hear only pikachu.

"You look cute, you know that?" he said to me, continuing to scratch me under my chin and on my belly, only making me purr even more. Then my dad placed me on the ground. My mother looked over all the pikachu.

"So, these are… Pikachu from the colony?" he said. We looked at all the pikachu, that were still standing there and watching us. I shook my head.

"Only Lukas if from the colony." I said.

"Yup!" Lukas smiled as he wagged his tail.

"Not all of them… Jack and Rosie are also here." my father said. "And Lukas, of course."

"And Scarlet…" Oak added as he and Albert came back in. My mother apologized. Albert thanked quickly and told my mom to forget about it, adding that he would be worried as well when his daughter would go missing, but that he was just frustrated about everything. He didn't have the chance to visit his own family yet.

"But without any… Well, without any accusation, why and how do you know we are his parents?" my dad asked Albert after a short while.

"Well, as I said, Team Rocket did research with DNA and Maurice was one of our test subjects. When we received reports about an pokéball accident involving a boy and some pikachu, our interest was piqued. Well, our, Team Rocket's." he added. "After a short while we got the documentation of Oak and Bill telling us that he, apparently, was sucked inside a pokéball, and that he had some kind of pikachu in his mind. That triggered our interest because he would be perfect for this transformation." Albert explained.

"I don't know how they got him. I suppose they just took him - all I know he was unconscious when he got in. We did some basic tests with him and it indeed turned out he was able to speak to pikachu and understand them. We never knew if he was able to hear and see as one, but we knew about the understanding part." he continued.

"After multiple examinations, we decided to try out luck on him. We continued the procedure and as you can see we managed to change him into a pikachu." he said as he looked at me, came closer and gently rubbed his fingers across my cheeks. Then he grabbed me from my father's shoulder and set me on the table in the middle of the room. He looked to me from top to bottom.

"And we did an awesome job, I have to say." he said as he touched me from top to bottom and inspected me. "Even though I do not agree with it or even though I know how uncomfortable it is for you." he said, looking at me.

"But, how do you know we are his parents?" my dad asked again.

"Well, because of his name. His complete name was in the file so tracking you down wasn't that hard. I knew Oak had something to do with this, because they got Maurice from here somehow. I went to your house after asking directions in the nearby Pokémon Center. Nurse Joy provided your address, and when I was at your house, the neighbours told me you were here. So I got a lift of someone that was heading here and here I am." he explained quickly. He turned his attention towards me.

"You have no idea how happy I am right now. I thought I would never find you again." he said. "At least your family knows you're a pikachu. That's something…" he sighed. Talking about pikachu and family, I suddenly remembered Nikki. I quickly drew his attention towards me.

"Nikki is here as well!" I said.

"This language barrier is just great." he mumbled as he shook his head. I took a step back and looked kind of angry-amused, knowing exactly what he meant.

"What do you wanna tell me…?" he said.

"Nikki?" I said, looking at the other pikachu. The pichu had found the pencils and were drawing, and the pikachu were just sitting or playing.

"Yeah?" she asked from under one of the computer tables. She poked her head out.

"Come on up here, I want to introduce you to somebody!" I chuckled. Nikki quickly jumped the table and stood next to me.

"This is Nikki!" I said pointing to Nikki. Albert was watching both of us. "She's also been human…" I said, knowing that he didn't understand me.

"Damnit…" I said as I looked around trying for something to translate my speech. Then something hit me. How could I be so stupid? Why didn't I think of this earlier? Then all that stress wouldn't be necessary. Espeon. Espeon could translate everything for me. My eyes lit up and I smiled.

"Wow, you are happy all of a sudden." he chuckled.

"He's up to something." my dad said. And he was right. I quickly moved towards one of the closets that was in Oaks laboratory, jumping down from the table to get there.

"So, are you introducing me?" Nikki said from the table. I tried to open the closet.

"You wanna get something?" Oak said as he walked over and unlocked it. I nodded and looked around. His storage of pokédex should be around here somewhere… I saw them and grabbed one, before I headed back to the table. I laid the pokédex down on the table and opened it. The thing went on. I clicked 'pokémon' and got into a list of pokémon. Unfortunately, since I lost the ability to read, I couldn't see which one it were. I looked at the device for a couple of seconds before I tried one of the buttons.

"_Bulbasaur. It bears the seed of a plant on its back from birth. The seed slowly develops. Researchers are unsure whether to classify Bulbasaur as a __plant__ or __animal__. Bulbasaur are extremely calm and very difficult to capture in the __wild__."_

No, that wasn't the right one. I clicked the button again.

"_The Seed Pokémon, Ivysaur…"_

No, no, no! NEXT!

"He wants to show us a pokémon, I think." Oak said as he stood next to Albert and my dad.

"_Venusaur..."_

No!

"Charme…"

No!

"This could take a while…" Oak said as he watched me pressing the buttons quicker and quicker as the pokémon flashed by and the computer-like voice couldn't properly finish the first word it was trying to say.

The process continued for a couple of minutes. As soon the wrong pokémon came on screen, I clicked the button to show the next one, until I reached number 196, which was Espeon.

"This is it!" I said happily as I saw Espeon's picture appearing on the screen.

"_Espeon, the Sun Pokémon. Espeon are able to read air currents allowing it to __predict the future__ as well as its opponents' next __moves__." _the device said. Oak, Albert and dad looked at me. I looked at the pokédex.

"Espeon?" Albert said. I nodded. I looked at Oak.

"The Espeon in the woods, the one you met…!" I said to Oak, pointing at the woods. Oak followed my paw and looked at the wall. Then he looked back.

"The colony…" he mumbled. "Espe… WAIT A MINUTE…" he said. "The Espeon from the woods, excellent idea!" he said as he looked at me. I smiled and with a happy 'PIKA!' I gave him a thumbsup to tell him that was what I meant. Albert and dad looked at him.

"Uhm, I… don't understand it?" Albert chuckled.

"In the pikachu colony Maurice joined, there is an Espeon. She helped him by translating pikachu speech into human speech using psychic powers. That way he learned to talk pikachu!" he said. "If we can get her here, she could translate his speech for us!"

"That would be ideal…" Albert mumbled.

"Lukas, did you see Espeon recently?" I asked Lukas, who was running around the table with the pichu. Lukas slid to a stop and looked at me.

"Yes, she was with the colony when I left there. She usually sticks around for the night if she's there all day long." Lukas replied. "Should I get her?"

"I'll come with you." I said as I jumped down from the table.

"Wait a minute!" my mother said. "Where are you going?!"

"He's going to get Espeon so he can talk with us." Oak said as he walked over to another closet and opened it. "He'll be back pretty soon." he said while his face was inside the closet, making him be barely hearable. I just wanted to walk outside with Lukas when Oak pulled me back.

"Hold it for one second, young man." he said as he lifted me by my scruff and carried me to the table. I tried to escape his grip, but nothing worked. So this is how it felt to be 'caught', I guess. I gave Oak a annoyed look.

"I know, I know." he said as he saw my face. "But I'm not going to let you go out there without something to track and to recognize you." he said as he quickly fixed a collar around my neck. It was red and had some funky striping. And it was itchy. As soon Oak released me and the collar, I tried to scratch it off with my feet because it itched so badly. I grabbed it with my paws and looked at it, before looking at Oak.

"It has GPS and is electricity resistant." Oak said. "Perfect to keep track of you in case you get lost or caught. If you don't return within 90 minutes, I'll come and get you, you understand?" he said as he looked at me firmly. I quickly nodded.

"Be careful, honey." my mother said as I jumped from the table.

"Sure 'ma, I'll be careful." I said as I walked past her. I followed Lukas outside.

"Hey Maurice, wait! You're not leaving without me aren't you?" Nikki said panicked as she followed quickly.

"Yes I am, I'll be back soon." I said quickly. Taking her with us would only delay us for now.

"You just stay here, I'll come back quickly." I chuckled as I nuzzled her cheek.

"Promise." I said as I watched her eyes. Dang, I have to be honest, she had beautiful eyes... No, no, no!

"Don't fall in love with her before you're sure you can't transform back!" I thought quickly before I turned around and ran behind Lukas, back to our colony, leaving an surprised Nikki behind.

**. . .**

After we ran a couple of hundred meters, we stopped running and started to walk a bit slower. We both walked on our back legs now, saying nothing really. Although, after I let Lukas go in front in a piece of rough terrain… I could notice he had something on his mind. Also, I could sense it, because… Well, because I was a pikachu! Pokémon could sense strong emotions from their trainers, but also from other pokémon. I could tell Lukas was… Well… Excited about something.

"Do you have something on your mind?" I chuckled when we walked alongside again and towards the colony. We weren't there yet, but it wasn't far.

"Well… You know… IT'S SO COOL!" Lukas shouted when he hugged me.

"What is cool?" I chuckled, pushing Lukas away a bit.

"Well…" Lukas started. "You know…"

I looked at him and waited for him to speak up, wondering what he wanted to tell me.

"After you've been gone… You… Well… They started to be mean to me… Some sort of way." Lukas said. "I don't know why, but they were getting really tough on me when I told them you probably weren't coming back real soon." he then said. "Some pikachu even wanted to choose another leader like… Immediately. Of course I rejected the idea, I thought I was doing fine. But they suddenly thought that I was too small to be the leader of the colony, and they started to be very… harsh on me." he continued.

"The thing is, I was called a bad leader, I made wrong decisions about stuff… I was only gone to check for you, they even said I was a bad mate." he said as he stopped and looked down for a moment. Then he looked at me. "Even though Lola keeps saying I am a good mate they keep telling me I am not." I could now see that he was crying a bit.

"I don't understand it. They even threatened to exclude me from the colony when I would not make someone else colony leader. I didn't even know why." he said. "So after a while some strong pikachu challenged me for a battle…" he said. Then he remained silent for a bit. I looked at him with a face of disbelief.

"And?" I said after a couple of seconds, wanting to know the outcome.

"I won." he then said as he smiled at me. He moved a bit closer and hugged me again.

"Thanks to you I won." he said.

"But I wasn't even there…" I chuckled.

"But the training helped me." he said as he broke the hug. "Anyway… I really missed you… And I realised how much I missed you… I mean…" he started but didn't continue.

"You mean what?" I chuckled as I stood in front of him, folded my paws and looked at him with a determined smile.

"Well, you're… You're my best friend in the entire colony… And you were gone for so long… And suddenly, Scarlet tells me that there's a random pikachu standing there that is… Well… YOU!" he said as he looked at me. "And then it appears you are really… Maurice… I… Well… I am confused a bit… I'm very happy you're back and such, and you're my friend… I was so happy back there… And I think… Well… It's cool that you're back as a pikachu…" he said as he blushed.

"I mean… I sometimes even thought about when you would be a pikachu, when you were talking pikachu with everyone… I mean, you're the best pikachu a human can be…" he said. It made me blush a bit.

"Hehe… Stop it Lukas, you're making me blush." I chuckled.

"Why? You really are a great pikachu…" he said. "It's really cool you're a real pikachu now… Really for real now." he chuckled. "But at being a pikachu you suck. Your attacks were weaker than a pichu back there." he chuckled.

"Gee, thanks." I said with a sarcastic tone while pulling a funny face.

"See, it's really you. You're the only one that would respond like this." he laughed. "The other pikachu would be mad at me or even attack me when I would say this." he said when his face turned dark again.

"I still don't know why they act like this…" he said. "But now you're back… I already want to see their faces if they realise you're here again." he chuckled. "When they realise it really is you…" he said as he looked up to the sky.

"Do you know why they would act like that?" he asked me, looking at me and tilting his head. I looked at him. Should I tell him the one and only reason they were acting like this was also me? That his best friend was the reason he was bullied now? And those damn pikachu, they promised… Ah well, they are pikachu. I can't really blame them. Jerkish, but I still can't blame them.

"Uhm, hello?" Lukas said as I was lost in thoughts. I looked at him.

"Well… Uhm… Yeah… I think I do know why they are like this." I said slowly and unsurely. Lukas looked at me and tilted his head.

"Well, why then?" he asked.

"It's because of me." I said.

"Because of you?" he asked.

"Yes, because of me. Remember back in the beginning, when they wanted to make you colony leader?" I said. Lukas nodded.

"Yes… I do…" he said.

"Well, actually, they didn't really wanted to make you leader." I sighed. "They wanted to make ME the leader of the colony." I said. "Not you."

Lukas remained silent for a while and looked at me.

"They chose me because… Well, I'm a human, I knew a lot, and I understood you guys better than average. I made right decisions according to them, and the more I was in the colony the better I got." I said. "But I never intended to be the leader of the colony. Never. I just wanted to be with you guys, but never wanted to be the leader. After asking a couple of times, they finally understood that I didn't want to become leader." I said.

"But… Why me?" Lukas said as he pulled a questionable face, not understanding that he was being used all the time.

"Because they knew you had a good bond with me." I said. "They knew that if they would make you colony leader, I would have influence on your decisions. You and I talk… Well, a lot. And in all that talking I could give you hints, help you out, do stuff…" I said.

"Basically, they used you to make me colony leader without me being the actual leader." I sighed. "In the start, I was also doubting if you would make a good leader." I said. Lukas looked at me with a serious but listening face.

"I don't mean this bad, Lukas." I added. "But you were young at that time, and other pikachu like Volt had more experience with it, I think. But they necessarily wanted me to be leader, or co-leader as they called it." I said.

"So… They used me… Ah…" he said as he looked down.

"They even asked me if I could help you." I said.

"But why didn't you tell me?" he said.

"Because you were so happy you were becoming leader, I thought it would destroy our friendship if I would do that." I said, looking away from him.

"So you have been controlling the colony through me for the whole time?" Lukas said.

"Well, basically, yes." I said. "The first months."

"What was a month again…?" Lukas said.

"Thirty suns… A long time." I said, cutting him off there.

"So you've been using me as well." he said, his voice and face turning darker.

"No." I said resolute. "I never have been using you to control the colony I wanted."

"I have been helping you, but I never controlled it myself." I said. But Lukas now got the whole plan, and I could see something had snapped. He finally understood the real purpose of making him leader and the reason he was now being bullied at the colony. And to be honest, I could perfectly imagine that he was fed up with those pikachu telling him what to do and what not.

"So you're not really a friend… Just using me…" he mumbled.

"I have never used you." I said. "I will be honest. The first month I could see you were hopeless in being a leader. Volt told me a lot behind your back to do, what I passed to you." I said. Lukas gritted his teeth and stood in fighters stance.

"But after a couple of months, you could clearly see that you were getting better and better at things. You now knew how things worked and what you had to do." I said. "At that point, I was afraid that the other pikachu would see you as a threat. Then I started to train you." I said. Lukas looked at me, still looking unhappy.

"Remember that? When I started to train you?" I said. Lukas looked at me and nodded quickly.

"Look back to after that moment. After you became stronger than before." I said to him. "Don't look at the time before that."

Lukas broke eye-contact and looked around, thinking.

"After that moment, you took control of the colony without me even knowing it. Sometimes I told you something that would be strange, or needed, or something like that, but you took proper control of the colony from that day. And look at you now - you are controlling one of the biggest colonies in Pallet. I think you've grown to be a fine colony leader and mate."

"And I've been gone now for… I don't know how long exactly. Too long." I said. "You're still controlling the colony, at least, I hope so." I said. "Thanks to me, you just said it." I added quickly with a quick glance. "I don't want to take credit for everything, but at least want to say that I just wanted you to be a fine colony leader and I think WE did a proper job."

Lukas looked at me, he was angry with me, or with the other pikachu, or with… Well, I don't know, but he was angry. He was just looking at me. He closed his eyes, sighed and then stood on his back legs. Then he opened his eyes and I could see he was crying a bit.

"It's not that I'm angry or something, but just… They…" he said as he bit his lips.

"They were just total jerks to you." I said. "That's what we call politics in our human world."

Lukas just gave me a small smile before turning back to his sad self. I stood closer to him and put a paw on his head.

"So they just used me to make you colony leader and now that you're gone they just want to get rid of me…" Lukas said as he sniffed his nose, drying his eyes. Knowing that it was just the tension of the past weeks, I stood next to him.

"Yup, that's about it, yes." I said.

"Let's show them." Lukas said.

"Show them what." I asked.

"That you're back." Lukas said.

"What would that do?" I asked.

"Well…" Lukas said. He probably didn't understand the consequences of telling them, nor did he realise that they probably wouldn't even believe him.

"It's not they will tell you that you will remain colony leader because I'm back. Or that they will even believe I am Maurice." I said.

"Well, that's true… But…" Lukas said.

"Just focus on being a good leader. Ignore what they tell you. If they tell you you are a bad leader, ask them why. I think they cannot find a good reason for it. And if they can, work on it." I said to him.

"Remember, you're here with a human being, and we are smarter than the average pikachu." I said as I looked at him.

"Gee, thanks." Lukas said while imitating me, also pulling a face. This made me smile widely.

"The year with me made you smarter than them, trust me. You know more about being a leader than you think right now." I said.

"How do you know?" he asked.

"Because I know you were thinking just now that you were a bad colony leader, until I told you I was actually training you instead of using you. You thought I was using you for myself, whilst I was using me to train you and make you a good leader." I said. "And right now you're thinking about everything and you're realising that I'm right. And you're probably thinking 'how does he know that?' by now." I chuckled.

"WHAT THE HECK." Lukas said. "How do you know that I'm thinking about how you know I know and…" he said as he grabbed his ears and head and shook them. "It's confusing!"

"That's why I understand it and you don't." I chuckled. Lukas looked at me and hugged me again. This time he hugged me longer than before.

"You're the best friend ever." he said.

"And you're the best pikachu ever." I said as I hugged him back. After a while we broke the hug.

"Why are pikachu hugging each other all the time?" I asked, pulling a funny face while looking at Lukas.

"Humans never hug?" Lukas asked.

"Well, males don't usually hug males…" I said.

"Why not…" Lukas said. "Whatever. Humans are weird." he said. "Smart - But weird." he said with a pause as he walked off towards the colony. I laughed about what he just said and followed him quickly, because we only had 90 minutes to get back to Oak. We had to find Espeon and get back, so we could actually talk to my parents.

* * *

><p><em>Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think about it! ;)<em>

_Oh, one more thing for 'certain' viewers. Don't shout in a library... :P_


	32. Explaining

_Hi all, and welcome to a new installment of Life as a Pikachu! I was suffering a small writers block, not knowing how to get out of certain parts, sometimes throwing stuff away and starting all over. I think it's nice now, we can work towards the start of the ending of the story._

_Place your bets now, will he remain pikachu or will he return back to human? Leave your answer and your opinion of the story in the review section, I love to read them._

_Thanks for reading and waiting, without further ado, let's continue. :)_

* * *

><p>It didn't take long before we arrived at the colony I knew so well. It even made me feel quite… Emotional… Or something. My pikachu side, which was in control most of the time, was more than happy it was back at a place it liked and loved. It was ideal for pikachu, simply put. Add one or two mates and the whole picture was complete.<p>

"So… Are you staying here with us while… Well, while you're a pikachu?" Lukas said with a glance of hope in his voice as we walked inside the colony through the trees that surrounded it.

"Well, I don't know yet. I really want to stay here, but I want to go home…" I said as I looked at him. "Just for the sake of… Being home. I mean, Team Rocket got me, they changed me into a completely different… something…" I said as I looked up and thought. "...and then Faia made a car crash and I had to pull along a pikachu that is also human and she forgot and she wants to be my mate…" I said as I shook my head.

"It's just too much for me to handle. I need some rest of everything. It's hard to believe I'm only a pikachu for a couple of days. It looked like ages. I was so afraid that nobody would ever know I was Maurice." I said as I shivered. "Imagine that you guys knew but that my parents would never believe that I was actually there, that I was a pikachu. It would make them so sad… And me too, because I would know that it was me but I couldn't tell them." I said.

Lukas stopped, turned around, and looked at me. He looked at my eyes and pulled some sceptic glares.

"Are you humans always thinking like this? Like everything goes wrong and such?" he said. I looked at him and looked next to him, lost in thoughts.

"Yup." I chuckled.

"But… But why? Everything's fine now, isn't it?" he said.

"Well, yes… But…" I said.

"Then don't bother about it." Lukas chuckled as he pulled me with him towards the colony.

"We're here. Let's see if Espeon is still here." he said as we walked into the clearing. A couple of pikachu gave us some glares, but when they realised it was Lukas, they didn't bother, but there were some bigger male pikachu coming straight for us.

"Hey Lukas!" one said. "I want to challenge you." he added at once, straight to the point.

"Oh, really?" Lukas said, not interested. "Why again? I beat your ass last time." he said.

"Because I want to take control of the colony!" he said. "You're doing a bad job and we want another pikachu to take your place, like Volt." he added.

"Hey, I think he's doing a good job, I'll only become leader when he tells me to." Volt said, walking towards the group with a 'not again' look on his face.

"Then I'll become leader." another pikachu said.

"No, I will." another said. Then they started arguing about who would become leader. Lukas looked at me, pulled a face and just walked away. I followed him, watched by Volt.

"They do this all the time." he said.

"Hey, where are you going?!" we heard from behind, before I could even answer.

"So our bad leader is a coward." another said.

"Running from a battle, like usual." another said.

"You're the worst leader we ever had, Lukas!" the first shouted. Lukas just stood there watching them, kind of frozen.

"Think about what I said…" I whispered to Lukas.

"Oh look, who is this. Newcomer?" the biggest of the pikachu said to me. It was Ricardo, one of our best fighters, but also a lone wolf. Now I was gone and the control of the colony was for Lukas alone, he took his chance and tried to take control over the colony. His speciality was power, but he wasn't that fast. Lukas was both fast and powerful, yet not as powerful as Ricardo.

"Ricardo, leave him alone." Lukas said.

"Oh, so you won't fight me but you will stand up for that puny little pikachu." he said as he moved closer and pushed me away a bit. I stood my ground and just gave him a foul look.

"If you only knew…" I thought. Lukas looked at Ricardo. Ricardo walked around me and then pushed me again, this time with more power, making me tip over. I yelped, rolled on my back and immediately rolled back on my feet. The other pikachu laughed at me and made fun of me. Lukas stepped in front of me.

"Leave my friend alone." he said with a dangerous voice.

"Oooooeeeehhhh, I'm so scared now." Ricardo said. "You have weak friends… So weak, you don't deserve to be leader."

"Ask him for three reasons." I whispered to Lukas so Ricardo couldn't hear.

"Give me three reasons." Lukas repeated straight after me. Then he looked at me with a 'what do you want me to do now?' face.

"Three rea… What?" Ricardo said as he looked at Lukas. I stood next to Lukas.

"Well, three reasons, dumbass, you know, things why he's a bad leader?" I said. Ricardo looked at me with a dangerous look.

"Shut your mouth, newbie." he said.

"Well?" Lukas asked, now understanding where this was going.

"Well, you suck, your mate fucks someone else, and you stink." he said.

"Wh… Wha?" Lukas said.

"You heard me." Ricardo said.

"Lola would never mate someone else." Lukas said as looked at Ricardo.

"Well, she did." he said as he laughed at Lukas. The other pikachu made fun of him. Lukas, a young pikachu, was bullied to the bone by the rest. I could see he was at the edge already, just after one measly bully. Probably because he had to deal with this all day long.

"She didn't like your sorry ass, so she found someone else while you were gone." Ricardo continued, belittling Lukas.

"Don't fall for it." I simply said to Lukas, pulling a completely neutral face. Ricardo looked at me again.

"Hey you, blabbermouth, shut up, will you?" he said. "Or I'll give you a beat up you'll never forget." I simply didn't respond. Lukas looked at me, and I gave him a quick wink.

"Oh look, the two are mates!" the pikachu said. "They winked!"

"I'd rather be mates with him than hearing you three talk any longer, jeez. You smell like shit and you sound like pichu." I chuckled.

"What did you say?" Ricardo said as he took a step towards me, sparking his cheeks. His friends took a step back, even Lukas took a step back, but I stood my guard. Since I had trained all of these pikachu, I knew what his move would be. Plus, as a pikachu, I would be able to dodge it with ease. He'd start with a headbutt followed by a quick attack and Iron Tail, usually taking out the target in one blow. But I could easily predict when he would attack me. A missed headbutt usually was fatal for the attacker, since if left your backside open completely. As a human, you could use this to turn around and grab the pikachu that attacked you at it's scruff. But since I was a pikachu, I could use some other techniques… Some more painful methods that we usually didn't utilize at the pokémon centers. Everyone knows there are things you shouldn't do with a pikachu, like pulling it's tail. There are several other of these tricks I could use against him.

"You heard me." I said, folding my arms. "Or are your ears full of shit as well?"

Ricardo took another step closer and stood right in front of me. I just looked up and gave him a foul look. He looked down and growled at me. Usually this would make a pikachu start running, but using my human mind I wasn't afraid at all (even though my pikachu side almost begged to run away). Ricardo took some steps back. He stood next to his friends again.

"So, does a bad mate make him a bad leader?" I said. "I don't think so. Neither does stinking, he can take a bath. Sucking doesn't make him a bad leader either." I said to Ricardo. Lukas just looked at me.

"Now get me some reasons or get lost." I said. Ricardo looked at me. You could easily see he was getting angrier with me with the second.

"Does he need you to talk to us or something?" Ricardo said.

"He has better things to do than talking to a bunch of pikachu that don't even know what they're talking about." I said with an amusing glare.

"Shut up, newcomer." Ricardo said.

"This newcomer knows more than you, Ricardo." I said.

"Shut - UP." Ricardo said. He stood on all fours and growled at me again.

"Ricardo is a douche bag, Ricardo is a douche bag." I sang on a random melody. "The newcomer is better than him." Ricardo got ready to attack, I could see it. I got ready to evade.

"SHUT UP!" he shouted.

"You shut up, you're a douche bag." I said. Ricardo launched from his spot to do the headbutt I expected, but I evaded him with ease.

"Oh, what's this, can't win from a newcomer?" I chuckled as Ricardo turned around and got ready to strike again. The pikachu around us took a step back, as this was turning into a duel. Time to end this stupid 'duel' with some ear pulling.

"I'll destroy you!" he said as he launched for me again. I simply stood aside from the powerhouse… and grabbed his ear. Thanks to my pikachu instincts, this was a piece of cake and thanks to Lukas' training just before my parents arrived, this was easier than I had expected. I twitched the ear 180 degrees and pulled hard, just like they would in the 1950's when you were naughty. I was dragged with him for a short while, but then I twitched his ear 360 degrees and Ricardo yelped in pain. I used the momentum I had to push his face against the ground, which wasn't easy. Ricardo resisted and tried to push me away but then I simply twitched his ear even further and pulled up while pushing down with my other paw. Ricardo whined and sat down like some kind of cat. I knew this was really painful. Ricardo whined and turned his face, only yelping harder when he pulled his own ear. I used my nails to firm my grip on him. Then I started to pull HIM around instead of the other way. Ricardo tried to push me away using a couple of moves. He wanted to shake me off, but it didn't work. My nails were dug deep into his skin and they weren't ready to let go.

"Come on big boy, can't you do better?" I said. Ricardo growled fiercely, but that didn't intimidate me at all. This simple move made one of the strongest pikachu (and it would probably make me as well) whine in pain and completely defenseless. Shaking your opponent off would feel like tearing off your own ear (in other words: it hurts) and doing nothing would count to defeat. In a live and death situation it would be worth it to tear your ear off, but this wasn't such a situation.

Ricardo suddenly did an enormous thundershock. I quickly grounded myself by putting my tail into the soil under us, so the electricity could flow away. The attack did little damage, even though it took my by surprise.

"Alrighty Ricardo, if I let you go will you stop being a total jerk to Lukas?" I said.

"What have you to do with that?" he said angry, still trying to get away, and whining if he tried so. The pikachu around us were holding their breath, wondering what the outcome would be. They were also surprised that this 'pikachu' was having a battle this strange, he didn't use a single move and still won.

"More than you think." I said, looking at him. I twitched his ear a bit. "Well?" I said, louder this time.

"Oh, go fuck yourself." he said. I twitched his ear again. He whined.

"Remember that you promised me that you wouldn't use him through me?" I said. "That you wouldn't abuse Lukas as soon I was gone?" I added. Ricardo looked at me with a surprised face.

"What the heck are you talking about?!" he said.

"Remember when you made him leader of the colony?" I said, pointing at Lukas and twitching his ear a bit.

"Owowo yes! I remember!" he said.

"What did you promise back then?" I said. I heard some gasping. Ricardo looked at me and pulled a face, not understanding what I meant. The gasping pikachu was Volt, who was now looking at me instead of Ricardo.

"I promised… Nothing!" he said. "How can you know! I don't even know you!" he said.

"Really?" I said. "How about headbutt, quick attack, iron tail?" I said. More pikachu gasped. Ricardo looked at me and still didn't understand.

"I knew your moves already before you even did them." I whispered to Ricardo. This was fun. He didn't have a clue what I was talking about.

"What the heck, what is wrong with you!" he said as he looked at me.

"Did you really think you would win a fight against a human being?" I whispered to him. Ricardo's eyes grew large as he looked at me. Then he pulled a face and looked around the pikachu group. I released him and walked away to Lukas. Ricardo sat up and looked at me.

"You're kidding me." he said. The whole colony was holding it's breath.

"Nope." I simply said. "I'm deeply disappointed in all of you." I added as I looked at the four pikachu that were bullying Lukas earlier.

"Who is that?" I heard from the crowded pikachu around us.

"That cannot be." Volt said as he moved closer. "No, no, no."

"Volt, it's really true." I said as I looked at him.

"How does he know his name?"

"Who is he?"

"Is that Maurice?"

"But wasn't he a human?!"

"WHERE IS HE!" I heard suddenly. I looked behind me to see a pikachu coming this way. It was Lola. The crowd made way for her, and she quickly got to the middle. She stopped before me.

"Was it you?!" she demanded angry, with eyes shooting fire.

"No, it was Ricardo." I heard a voice I didn't know that well. Lola's eyes shot from me to Ricardo. She looked at him. Ricardo looked back at her. He looked seriously scared. And I felt scared as well. Lola's looked dangerous.

"YOU - LITTLE - PIECE - OF - PICHU - SHIT!" Lola screamed slapping Ricardo in the face with her nails.

"Ow-ow - What are you doing?!" he said as he got up quickly and backed off. But Lola jumped into the air and did a well placed Iron Tail. She did it so fast that she even surprised me - she hit Ricardo dead on target. Ricardo was thrown on his back. He fell backwards and remained motionless, not hurt but looking at Lola and not daring to move. Lola walked over to him dangerously. She stood in front of him and then stood on top of his belly. Her face was dangerously close to his. She growled dangerously to him.

"Dont… EVER…. again…" she started "...tell Lukas I have a different mate." she growled. "I'm fed up with that shit." Then Lola gave Ricardo one more dangerous growl. It even scared me. Never try to stop an angry female…

"You don't even HAVE one…" she said in his face. "NEVER had one." she added. Then she jumped from Ricardo's belly.

"Not for more than three suns, at least." she said before she turned around and ran over to Lukas. Then she hugged him.

"I'm sorry for these jerks, Lukas." she said. "Don't believe them… I'm happy that Abby came to tell me they were trying to set you up again… This time I was fed up with them."

"You're the best mate… ever…" Lukas said as he nuzzled her cheeks. Lola purred and nuzzled Lukas back. The pikachu scattered around the colony again, except a couple ones that were interested in me, including Volt.

"I cannot believe this…" Volt said as he stood before me before I knew it. "Is that really you, Maurice?"

"Yes, it is really him." Lukas said. Lola stopped nuzzling Lukas and looked at me.

"Wait, this is…" she said as she looked at me with a open mouth.

"Yes, it is really him." Lukas repeated as he nuzzled Lola back. Lola purred and smiled at Lukas before she turned her attention back to me.

"But… But I thought you were a human… What happened to you?" she said.

"That's what I'd like to know as well." Volt said next to Lola. I looked at Lukas and told the pikachu around me my story. After I was done they all looked at me, expecting me to tell more.

"Wow…" Volt said. "Well, welcome back!" he smiled.

"I'm not staying." I chuckled.

"Wait, what?" Lukas said. "I thought you would stay here!"

"We came for Espeon, remember?" I chuckled.

"Yes I remember, but I hoped you would stay with us after that!" he said as he looked at me with hope in his eyes. I sighed and looked back at the pikachu standing in front of me.

"Sorry, but I won't be staying here right now." I said. "I want to go home. Maybe later, when I'm used to this a bit, and when I get over everything, and when I know if I can change back, I'll stick around here for a while." I said.

"Oh…" Lukas said. "So that means you'll go away again."

"I'm sorry, but yes." I sighed.

"Awww…" Lukas said as his ears drooped.

"Hey, don't worry, I'll sure visit you at least once as a pikachu. I promise. And I will visit soon." I said as I put a paw on his shoulder. "It's only… I want to be with my mom and dad right now…" I said as I sighed as well.

"It's fine… I was just so happy you got back." Lukas said as he hugged me again.

"I understand… Those pikachu weren't nice to you." I said. "Just don't let them drive you crazy."

"I won't." Lukas smiled.

"And I'll make sure they won't." Lola chuckled. "I mean, not that he can't handle them… He won fighting against them…"

"I understand." I said. "Do you have any clue where Espeon is?"

"I believe near the lake." Lola said. "She was here just now… You must have missed her."

"Dang, come on Lukas, let's go find her." I said as I ran off and Lukas followed me.

"Why do you need her anyway?" Lola said after us.

"To translate my speech for my parents!" I said back, before running away through the bushes.

. . .

Finding Espeon wasn't hard at all. We walked right into her as we were halfway the path towards the lake.

"Oh hey Lukas, how are you?" she asked as we stopped in front of her.

"And who is that…?" Espeon asked as she looked at me. "I can't recall to remember you."

"Really?" I said. "But you know me really well!"

"Really well?" she said with a unsure voice. "What's your name?"

I looked at Lukas with a sly smile. He looked at me with a face.

"It's all yours." I said as he almost begged me if he could tell it.

"It's Maurice!" he said. Espeon looked at me and then back at Lukas.

"Very funny, Lukas." she said with an adult-like annoying face that looked at both of us.

"But… It's true!" Lukas said.

"Look, I know you want him back as well, but making these jokes isn't funny." Espeon said.

"It's not a joke." I said as I looked at her. Espeon looked at me and I closed my eyes. Espeon and I had a lot of conversations without even talking using telepathy. It worked much faster, since I could show her images with my mind by simply thinking about it. I thought about my transformation, how surprised I was, about Nikki, our journey back to the lab, the reunite with my parents, why we needed Espeon and that it was really me. I opened my eyes after twenty seconds or so. Espeons eyes were glowing blue. As soon I was done they stopped glowing and she looked at me.

"Oh my…" she said as she sat down and inspected me. "Really?"

"Yup, really." I said.

"Isn't it awesome?" Lukas said as he hugged me again.

"Haha, I believe you think it's awesome." Espeon chuckled at Lukas as he did so. "But I also sense someone that isn't so happy with it." she said as she looked at me. I looked back at her.

"Well… Yeah…" I said as I blushed a bit. "I think it's awesome but… I prefer to remain human."

"Are you able to change back?" Espeon asked.

"I'm not sure. That's something for the scientists to discover." I said. "But that's not why we are here. We need you." I said.

"To translate. I saw that in a glimp." Espeon chuckled.

"Oh yeah, you know what I'm thinking." I said as I looked at her.

"I'm still a bit overwhelmed by your sudden change of appearance…" she said as she came closer and took my scent. "Your scent is different but familiar."

"That's what Scarlet said. She knew it was me." I said. "The only one that knew it. I don't know how she knew me and Lukas didn't, but she said that she knew me from the eyes…"

"Yeah, but Scarlet has a crush on you." Lukas said. "She told me she would recognize you anywhere."

"You know?" I said.

"Or course I know." Lukas said. "The way she behaves around you says enough about that... And besides that, she told me that she loved you."

"Blabbermouth…" I mumbled. Lukas chuckled.

"And I also know you got a crush on Nikki." he said. I waited a second and let these words sink in before I looked at him.

"How'd you know?" I asked.

"Haha, Maurice, really?" he said. "Do you think I don't know? I'm not crazy."

"No, it's just…" I said as I blushed heavily.

"It's just the truth." Espeon finished my sentence slowly while she looked at me with a look that said 'or isn't it?'.

"OK OK OK! I really like her, yes." I said. "But I just don't wanna tell her."

"Why not?" Lukas chuckled. "It's not wrong to like somebody. Are you scared?"

"Because I'm a human." I said as I looked at him with a serious face.

"No, you're a pikachu." Lukas said as he looked at me and smiled.

"No Lukas, I'm still a human that's changed into a pikachu. And until I'm absolutely sure I cannot change back… I'm not gonna get a mate." I sighed. "Even if I love Nikki. By the way, Nikki was a human as well, we need to change her back… Imagine me and her mating and getting pichu and then changing back to human. How would that work out? That would be cruel for the pichu."

"Well, I could raise it for you." Lukas chuckled.

"Whatever." I said. "Espeon, we need to go back to the laboratory. They're waiting for us there."

"Oh yeah I forgot…" Lukas said.

"You coming as well, Lukas?" I asked.

"Of course." Lukas said.

"Cool. But no mating talk, please." I said as I pulled a face. Lukas shook his face.

"Humans are weird. Why not just be open… It's much easier." he said as we ran off towards the lab.

. . .

We reached the laboratory quickly. The door was open, and we walked inside. My dad and Oak were talking inside Oak's room. Oak and my dad looked at us as we entered.

"Ah, Maurice, perfect timing." Oak said as he saw me. I smiled at my dad and jumped towards him almost immediately.

"Haha, welcome back." my dad said as he caught me and I requested cuddles. Rubbing my cheeks against his hands I climbed his arm and stood on his shoulder looking down on the room. Now I knew why Lukas, Scarlet and Cammy liked it climbing my shoulder so much. It gave you a whole new perspective on the world, compared being a pikachu. Seeing things from the ground is so much different… I held on tight as I looked around from above the shoulder of my dad. Looking down, it was rather… high… I would almost get scared by it. But I didn't.

"So this is your father?" Espeon said.

"Whoa, she can talk?" my dad said.

"Not really, she can use physic on you so you can understand her." I said without thinking.

"Maurice?!" he said as he turned his head and looked at me. I looked back with a questioning glare.

"What's the matter?" I said.

"You can talk!" he said. I pulled a questionable face.

"No shit." I said.

"Almost the same as you." Espeon chuckled. "You two are really alike."

"Wait, what?" my dad said. "How do you mean the same as him?"

"Wait, you can understand me, right?" I said as something in my head clicked.

"Yes, I can now." my dad said.

"That's why we got Espeon, silly!" I said as I softly punched his head with my paw.

"I know, but it sounds so weird to hear your voice again… But from a pikachu…!" he said.

"Wait, I still have my normal voice?" I said.

"Yes you do, only it's pitched slightly higher." Oak said.

"Oh wow… That's weird." I said.

"Or not. Depending on how you see it. I mean, you're still in there somewhere. How Albert managed to fit it all in that pikachu brain is still a mystery to me, but he managed to do it." Oak said.

"I did what?" Albert said as he and my mom entered the room.

"Fit Maurice inside that." my dad said as he pointed at me.

"Hi mom!" I said.

"Hello sweethea…. Wait did he talk?" she said halfway her sentence.

"Yes I did. Why is everyone so surprised by that?" I said as I pulled a face. "Pikachu can talk just as we can, only in a different language."

"It's just strange to talk to pikachu." Albert said.

"Maurice doesn't think so." Lukas said.

"Well, the first time I did." I said as I jumped from my fathers shoulder towards the table.

"Well that's true." Lukas said.

"Anyway…" I said. "Where is everyone?"

"You mean the pikachu? They got bored from waiting and went outside." Oak said.

"Ah, ok… Well, maybe it's better that they're gone. I wouldn't want Nikki and Scarlet to talk through this every time wondering what it means." I said as I pulled a face.

"Oh my, explain yourself." my mom chuckled.

"Really mom, that's exactly what I wanted to avoid." I said with an annoyed face when Cammy, Scarlet, Nikki, Jack and Rosie walked into the room together with their pichu.

"Avoid what?" Scarlet asked as Cammy jumped the table and hugged me.

"Hey, get away from my mate!" Nikki said almost immediately. Cammy just looked at Nikki with a weird face.

"Your… Mate?" my mom said. "Did I miss something?"

"No you did not." I said clearly annoyed, making sure every words was loud and clear, as Nikki jumped the table and pulled Cammy away from me.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Cammy said annoyed.

"He's my mate, you stay away from him." Nikki said simply put. Cammy looked at her and pulled an annoyed face.

"Is she your mate, Maurice?" my mom asked.

"Yes, I'm his mate. And we're gonna mate and find a den and have pichu." Nikki said looking at everyone. I blushed heavily and looked at my mom.

"Awwww…" my mom said.

"That's what SHE wants." I said as I looked down, a bit in shame.

"Well, I wouldn't mind… It sounds cute." my mom chuckled.

"Mooooooooooooooooooooooooom!" I said long, upset, surprised, and amused at the same time. "First you forbid me everything and now it's cute?!"

"Just kidding, just kidding…" my mother chuckled.

"Well, mate or not, you're still my daddy and I love you!" Cammy said as she pushed Nikki aside and hugged me.

"Wait, daddy?!" my mom said.

"Adopted." I said as I purred and nuzzled Cammy back. "I took her in when she was a pichu - and I still a human." Scarlet and Nikki both looked jealous at Cammy when I stopped giving her attention.

"Hey no offence, but that plan Nikki told you was pretty good. If you'd be willing to take a mate, I'd like to do the same." Scarlet said.

"Oh, so this is a fight about Maurice, now I understand." Oak said. "I knew Scarlet liked Maurice, but this… You're lucky, Maurice." he chuckled.

"Whatever you call lucky." I said. "Now, please give me some privacy and leave the room. I want to talk to my parents and Oak and Albert."

"But why can't we stay?" Nikki said.

"Nikki, you can stay for a while longer, but the rest has to go because I don't want you to fight over everything I say to my parents." I said. "Please - it'll only speed things up. I know it's a bit… arrogant, but its better for everyone."

"Uhm… OK." Scarlet said. Lukas looked at me with a sad face, but after Oak pushed all pokémon out of the room except Nikki, Espeon and me, I finally got some time to introduce Nikki properly.

"So, Albert, remember I wanted to tell you something?" I said to Albert.

"Yup, I do. What was it?" he said.

"This is Nikki." I said.

"Yup, that's me!" Nikki said. As soon I mentioned 'Nikki', Alberts eyes grew large.

"Are you kidding me?" Albert said as he moved closer. "That's great, that's absolutely great…"

"According to Faia she was a human before as well." I said as I pointed at her and looking at him. "That's why we were moved together and that's why I took her with me."

"Nikki Urtea?" officer Jenny said.

"Yes, Nikki Urtea." Albert said as he held Nikki with both hands and checked her from top to bottom.

"You know her?" I said.

"You bet." Jenny said. "She disappeared about three months ago. Not a trace of her, ever. We stopped the investigation because we couldn't find anything of her."

"This is great, just great!" Albert said. "I'm so happy we found another one…"

"Uhm, what do you mean?" Nikki said as she nuzzled my cheek and purred.

"Nikki Urtea, listen to me." Albert said as he pulled Nikki away from me, held her tight and forced her to look at him. "You are a human being. You were transformed into a pikachu by Team Rocket." Nikki stared at Albert blankly for a couple of seconds.

"Don't tell lies!" she said as she shook herself free. "That's what Maurice tells me, but it's not true! I'm a pikachu, and he is a pikachu as well!" she shouted. "Just look! Do I look like a human and does Maurice look like one?!" she said. "We're mates, we just wanna have a family and don't be bothered with! Just leave us alone!" she said as she looked at me. "Come on Maurice, let's go… I don't feel very comfortable here." she said as she grabbed my paw and pulled. She looked at me with a scared glare when I didn't move.

"I'm not coming, Nikki." I said as I stopped her. Nikki looked around. First at me, then at Albert, then at my dad (which was actually giving her a very relaxing glare) and then my mom and Jenny. They all looked down on her.

"Please Maurice, let's go…!" she plead, pulling harder. "I wanna go away, I don't feel safe." she said while looking around.

"But I do feel safe." I said as I looked at her. "And I don't want to go away."

"But Maurice...!" she said as she looked at me with scared eyes and then at all the adults around her. Suddenly Nikki had changed into a scared pikachu from which you could expect anything in terms of escape.

"There's nothing to be scared off." I said. Nikki quickly stood next to me and held on tight.

"But they're… They're telling me that… And you and everyone…" she said. "It's not true!"

"Calm down, Nikki. Neither of these humans wants to hurt you or kill you or turn you into a human." I said as I rubbed her cheek.

"Really?" she said as as she looked around.

"Of course not." my dad said as he moved his hands closer. Nikki growled at them.

"Oh come on." I said as I pushed my mate-to-be in my fathers hands. Nikki yelped, but my dad only moved his fingers through her fur and massaged her. Nikki let it all happen and after a few moments, she closed her eyes and purred.

"We should contact her family…" Jenny said.

"That won't help." I said. "Nikki has lost all her memories of being a human. She can't remember anything. Do you know more about that, Albert?"

"Yes, I do. The pikachu that lived through the transformation, usually remembered their human-being life perfectly. But after a couple of hours, days, weeks, or even months, sometimes even immediately, they forgot everything. It depends on the pikachu if they forget and how fast it goes. Once the pikachu forgets his human life, it's gone forever." Albert said.

"Gone… Forever?" I repeated slowly.

"So Nikki will never remember her family or… her human life?" I asked.

"To be honest, I don't know." Albert said. "We've never tried to change a transformed pikachu back into a human. It might work or it might not, I am not sure."

"Which brings us to me… Can I change back to a human?" I asked, almost begged. I could feel my parents also wanted to know this.

"I wish I could tell you." Albert said. "I can't. As far as I know we never changed pikachu to human."

I sighed. Was that too much to ask.

"Listen." Albert said. "If Kanto police will grant me permission to go back in there (he looked at Jenny), I can see what I can do. Until then, I cannot tell you."

It made me look down. I sighed again and shook my head. My dad (who had brought Nikki outside) now grabbed me and held me.

"Don't lose hope." he said as he hugged me.

"It's not that I lost hope. I wished I could just go to their hideout and change myself back this instant." I said. "Being a pikachu is cool, but to be honest, I prefer to be human."

"Well, you got plenty of friends to play with, right?" my dad said. "They'll keep you busy until you can change back."

"Yeah, that's true, I guess." I said. "But that's also the problem."

"The problem?" my mom asked.

"Yes, the problem." Oak said. He looked at my mother with a serious face. "Nikki."

"Nikki?" my mom asked. "How can she be the problem?"

"And Scarlet." Oak added. "And Cammy, although Cammy is a smaller problem."

"Can you explain me?" my mom said. "They look fine pikachu to me. I mean, I don't want them in my home, but they look fine pikachu."

"And they love me." I added. My mom and dad looked at me.

"What's the problem in that?" my dad chuckled.

"I would consider the fact that both of these pikachu have plans to start a family with your son a legit reason to worry." Oak said. My mom and dad now got the message, and looked at me with a certain face, mainly my mother.

"No I didn't." I said looking away from them. "Not yet."

"I thought you were joking, but are you serious right now?" my mom asked.

"Yes I am. And Nikki is dead serious about the family part." I said.

"But, how bad can it be? You can just ignore her, can you?" she said.

"He could, if he was a human." Oak said. "Like he ignored Scarlet for a while already. Not a drop of sweat. But this is a entirely different case. Maurice is now a pikachu…"

"So…? He still has his human thoughts, right?" my mom said.

"Yes, I have. But things are indeed different." I said as I looked at Oak, thanking him for explaining. "When I was human, I was a human with a pikachu inside me. My human mind was in control, and with my human mind, I also controlled my pikachu mind. I could allow it to control me and take the control at any given time. Like a robot of some sort." I said as I looked at my parents. They both nodded.

"However, sometimes, with a strong emotion, like if I got scared - or rather, my pikachu side got scared of something, or if something caught its attention, like a female for example, the emotion would be so strong that my human mind couldn't control it. Then I changed into a pikachu for a moment. For real. A pikachu in a human body." I said. "Get what I mean?"

"Yes, I do. You can control the… Pikachu inside, except for strong emotions or… Uhm… incentives." my dad said.

"That's what I mean." I said as I nodded. "With the most simple explanation being a laser pointer, I just got to get it when it appears somewhere…" I chuckled. Everyone laughed shortly.

"But what's the problem then?" my mom asked.

"Well, right now, this whole thing I just explained is kind of switched around. I'm a human inside a pikachu body. Right now, I'm like controlling myself, but it's much harder to retain… control over my pikachu side. It's controlling me most of the time. Maybe it sounds weird, but it basically means I'm like controlling myself but more like a wild pikachu would do. And guess what my pikachu side would love to do." I said as I frowned towards my parents.

"Ah, I get it now." my dad said.

"But… Can't you shake it off?" my mom said as she pet me with her hand and looked at me.

"I can…" I said. "But who knows how long until it goes wrong. I just need one strong… uhm… incentive… that I can't resist and I'm done for."

"And trust me, it's not easy." Oak said. "It's not like telling somebody not to do it. When a female pikachu wants to mate, they have several ways to tell this to the male and to make him mate. It's first instinct and very, VERY hard to fight against."

"We should thank Arceus that Nikki and Scarlet don't know charm or sweet kiss, or I would fall hopelessly in love with one of the two." I sighed. "And thank Arceus it's not mating season as well. I don't wanna know what happened then. You'll probably have to lock me up somewhere if it gets to that, if I see what it did to everyone in the pikachu colony."

My mother and father looked at each other and now understood that I was actually having trouble with girls. And it wasn't even funny…

"We'll talk about it when we get home. I'm sure there's something we can do." my mom said as her hand slid down my back and she scratched my ears.

"Are we going home?" I said as my ears perked up happily.

"Yes tiger, we're going home." dad chuckled at my reaction.

"But what about Albert?" I said. "I mean, if he gets arrested… I probably can never change back." I said as my ears hung again and my tail flopped as well. Jenny stepped forward.

"We have discussed the matter, just the two of us. Albert is very well aware he is responsible for the transformation and maybe even murder of several people, including transforming you." she said. "But since he is trying his best to inform you, me and your parents that you are a pikachu and since he is cooperating to change you back into a human (she looked at Albert, which quickly nodded), it's pointless to arrest him. If I did, I would just slow down everything to change you back, plus, I we would have to go and gather everything, we would have to take him into custody, and so on, well, you know the drill." she said. I nodded. "I have decided to arrest him but to bail him out immediately so we can continue the investigation while he works on your change. For now I don't have a clue what I should do and if I should either sue him or drop all charges, because he certainly didn't do anything out of free will. It's something we'll discuss later." she sighed. "For now, he's free to help with your transformation. We'll keep in touch, you'll probably need to visit him and the research facility often for tests." she said. "And we need to check all the pikachu that came from the facility as well."

Wait a minute, that reminded me of something!

"The pikachu that were in the Team Rocket hideout, where are they?!" I said. Jenny looked at me, surprised by my sudden enthusiasm.

"Why are you asking?" she asked.

"Some of these pikachu belong to my colony!" I said. "One in particular."

"Uhm, which one, if I may ask?" Jenny asked.

"Lukas' dad is among them…" I said. "His dad was considered death but apparently he was caught by Team Rocket and-"

"Maurice, hang on, we can't understand you." my dad interrupted. I looked at Espeon. She was staring at me, her eyes normal instead of blue, which they usually were in translation mode.

"WHAT?" she said as she looked at me. "His dad?! But he's dead! Are you kidding me?!"

"No he isn't." I chuckled. "If you translate again, I'll explain. And I'm not kidding."

"Oh, sorry. I'm just…" she said. Her eyes started glowing again.

"This better?" I said. Everyone nodded.

"Sorry, I was just a bit surprised." Espeon said through telepathy towards everyone and I continued.

"His dad was taken from him when he was young. He always thought his dad was dead, but it appeared his dad was caught by Team Rocket for use in this experiment. He never died - he was just captured and has been stuck in the hideout of Team Rocket ever since." I said.

"Really?" Jenny said. "Then we should sort these pikachu out."

"We should, but not just yet. Oh, and please don't tell Lukas yet. Not yet. As soon I transform back to human I'll sort everything out with you, depending on how long it'll take to transform back. But for now, just don't put them up for adoption or something, but make sure they get a good treating, because they've been in horrible conditions for a long time." I said.

"Why wait?" Jenny said.

"Because there are more pikachu from different colonies that I need to sort out. I'm sure they want to go back to that colony. That'll go easier as human, because I'll be able to do the research myself." I said. "Assuming I'll still be able to talk pikachu after I transform back, if I ever transform back…" I said as I sighed.

"Don't worry, I'll do my best. For now, I can tell you we did some tests regarding pikachu to human transformation. I'll see what the results were and I'll check if it's possible to change you back." Albert said as he laid a hand on my head. "But right now… You should go home. You look tired." he said as he stroked me from my head to my ears and scratched my ears.

"Thanks… I guess." I said as I purred. Then I suddenly felt really tired, for some reason. Was it because Albert told me I was tired? Or was it because it was a long day? Who knows.

"Just make sure these females don't drive you crazy." Albert said as he looked at me. "I know it's hard for you, but you can do it. I'm sure. I'll make sure Nikki and Scarlet something that makes them less willing to mate…"

"If you could, please. It looks like we're close friends and such, and we are, but sometimes they drive me crazy. Mainly Nikki though, she won't stop telling me that every den we see is great to live in. Scarlet understands me a bit more I guess, she stopped asking after she understood I was just keeping Nikki with me for human being sake…"

"But you did say you were in love with her, didn't you?" my mom said.

"Unfortunately, my pikachu side is, yes." I sighed. "But I won't have to deal with that when I'm home." I smiled.

"No you won't have to." my dad said as he grabbed me and placed me on his shoulder and smiled.

"Espeon, would you like to come with us so we can talk with Maurice?" my dad asked. "It's only temporarily… I hope." he said. Espeon looked at him and nodded.

"I'm fine with that, as long I'm free to go whenever I want." she said.

"Sure, sure." my dad said.

"Espeon, it's best to register you if you go with them, or they might capture you… Espeon are very popular pokémon." Oak said. After registering Espeon to Oak, my parents, Oak, Jenny, and Albert all shared phone numbers so they could reach each other in case something happened or in case Albert wanted to see me. After that, we headed home. The goodbye with Lukas and Scarlet was kind of easy, they just said goodbye. They knew they would see me again soon. Lukas asked me to visit the colony as pikachu a couple of times, because he thought it was cool.

Rosie even hugged me and wished me all the best and even reassured me that everything was gonna be alright. I guess she saw what I was going through, probably she could feel that better because she was mother of pichu and had to deal with this everyday.

Nikki, however, was entirely different. When I told her that I was going home and she was staying here, she almost exploded. Which was understandable, of course, but not really... nice to tell her and such. I wasn't really happy to leave her behind, but it was the best to do right now. Nikki however took this entirely different and screamed, shouted and even cried when I told her I'd go away for a while. It made me feel sad, but I knew it was the best. Lukas and Scarlet helped me out big time by telling that I would be back. When any human tried to reassure her, she'd try and electrocute him or her… Thankfully Scarlet and Lukas weren't affected at all. I was sad that Cammy was nowhere to be seen nor found when I was leaving, because I wanted to say goodbye to her, but we couldn't find her. I didn't know what to think of that. Maybe she was crying somewhere, maybe she was just asleep. Who knows.

In the car on the way back to my house I felt asleep fast. When we arrived home, my dad woke me up by gently shaking me awake.

"Hey there, we're home." he said, smiling, grabbing me out of the seat and setting me on the path towards our front door. My mom just unlocked the door when I slid past her and entered first. It felt good, now I actually was welcome and not being chased away by my own parents. Good to be home, good to be here. It felt like ages since I was here, although it was just a couple of days, maybe two weeks.

"Nice house, Maurice." Espeon chuckled as she entered behind me.

"Thanks." I said as we entered the living room and Espeon looked around. My dad and mom also entered.

"Maurice, we've got you something… Oak said you'd like it." my dad said with a smile. He then looked into a bag he took with him. He searched into it, before he grabbed a pokéball. He threw it in the air and before I even realised, Cammy stood in front of me. She hugged me before I could even react. We hugged each other, Cammy purring loudly.

"Finally Nikki is gone…" she said. "She's getting on my nerves."

"She's getting on my nerves as well." I sighed.

"Why is she your mate if she makes you unhappy?" Cammy said as she looked at me.

"That's hard to explain right now, Cammy." I said. "Man, I'm hungry…"

"Me too! Let's eat!" Cammy said as she hopped away from me and towards the kitchen.

"You hungry?" my mom said to Cammy as Cammy looked up to her when I entered the kitchen as well.

"Me too… And Espeon too, I think." I said as I looked at Espeon. She nodded and mom looked into the kitchen cabinet for food.

"Maurice, should I give you this?" she said, unsure if I'd like pokéchew.

"Sure! I like that." I chuckled. "Ever since I got caught in that pokéball I love it when I'm in pikachu mode, so don't feel bad for giving me that."

"Thank goodness. I wouldn't know what else I should give you." my mom said. After we ate our dinner, I felt tired. I could see Cammy was tired as well. Espeon wasn't showing any signs of being tired at all.

"Tired?" she asked at me telepathically.

"Yes…" I said, yawning long and loud, throwing my paws in the air human-style. Cammy followed me and also yawned.

"Contagious, isn't it?" I chuckled at Cammy before we walked into the living room. My mom and dad sat on the couch and were watching TV. I also looked at the TV. The news was on, which always interested me back when I was human. But right now, it just didn't interest me. I guess. Instead, I jumped the couch right next to my dad. My mother was busy doing laundry and folding all kinds of clothing.

"You know, without you, this is going a lot faster." she said as she held my dad's underwear towards me. I smiled quickly, before I jumped my dad's chest. He looked down just in time to see me climbing his sweater, before I stopped at his neck and laid my head just under it, sighing and nuzzling his neck.

He smiled and placed his hands around me. It made me feel much safer and if felt all nice and warm. I cooed happily and closed my eyes, nuzzling my cheeks around his neck and hands and unintentionally releasing some sparks from my cheeks.

"You know, you behave just like Bobby." my dad said. "Including the sparks."

"Sparks? Is he attacking you?" my mother said.

"You will never understand pikachu." my dad laughed. "They affectionately spark sometimes, it's normal." he said as he revealed one of my cheeks towards my mother.

"Watch." he said. He then started rubbing under my chin, which felt absolutely great. I purred loudly and sparked again, small electric sparks releasing from my cheeks.

"Whaa…" my mom said as she saw it. "Isn't that dangerous?"

"Haha, not at all. They also do this when they sleep next to you and you cuddle them instead of the other way around." my dad said. "It feels like getting tickled, it's not dangerous at all.

"Well, better you than me." she said when Cammy jumped the couch as well, and copied me. She jumped on my dad's belly and then climbed up towards me. "I'd be terrified."

"Oh my, you too?" my dad said. Cammy purred and gave dad a irresistible puppy face. I opened up one eye and looked at Cammy. She stuck her tongue out shortly before dad placed her right next to me. She immediately started nuzzling me, before she started to wash my face right in my fathers hands. I purred softly, letting Cammy wash me more efficiently. After thirty seconds or so she was done, while my mom looked at everything. Instinctively, I started washing Cammy as well. I started with her cheeks, then her ears, and then her head. Cammy held still and purred as well. My mom shook her head.

"You're absolutely crazy, Maurice." she said. I opened one eye, looked at her, stuck my tongue out, before I closed my eyes and cuddled up to Cammy, before we both fell asleep. It must have been when my parents went to bed that I woke up shortly.

"No worries…" my dad said as we entered my own room. "Just putting you in your own bed."

He laid me down on my own pillow and shortly later he placed Cammy right next to me. Cammy and I cuddled close before my dad placed my blanket over us.

"Sweet dreams." he said, letting Espeon enter and leaving the room, leaving the door slightly open. Espeon jumped my bed and curled herself up at the end.

"Why is Nikki your mate when she makes you unhappy?" Cammy said at me.

"Just don't worry about it." I said as I started licking Cammy instinctively. I cleaned her head and cheeks again before I noticed she was asleep. I laid down next to her and closed my eyes. I slept before I even knew it.


End file.
